As Islamophobic attacks spike in the aftermath of the deadly Paris attacks, statistics shows of all attacks on US soil two-thirds of deaths have been caused by “right-wing” attackers.
David Sterman, the senior programme associate at the New America Foundation, while speaking to Vox said, “There is a conventional wisdom that terrorism in the US is the province of foreigners and is seen as a problem of infiltration.”
“And while there is certainly a reason for that perception, as the September 11 attacks were conducted by people who came in from abroad, in the 330 cases we’ve examined since September 11, we found 80 per cent are US citizens,” he added.
Sterman’s statement is in stark contrast to comments made by Republican politicians calling for the prevention of Syrian Muslim refugees from entering the United States for fear of Paris-style terrorist attacks.
Filmmaker and author, Michael Moore, also tweeted against the rampant Islamophobia in the USA. “Thanksgiving weekend is over, and after all those warnings about Muslims, the one terrorist incident of the weekend is a white hater in Colorado,” he said.
A recent example of terrorism perpetrated by a white US man is the shooting at an abortion clinic in Colorado. Robert Lewis Dear, 57, is believed to have entered the Planned Parenthood clinic with a high-powered rifle on Friday and fire on police and civilians outside the building.