Let’s look at this, shall we?-
The left often jumps to assign various killers to the "right", and sometimes combines this with a call for a clampdown on right-wing speech.
Yes, sometimes these killers are right-wing. But sometimes they are really
lunatics. Sometimes they are even left-wing!
- List of attacks assigned to the "right"
- Neo-nazi James von Brunn, the US Holocaust Museum shooter, June 2009, has been labelled a "right-wing" terrorist, and no doubt many vaguely think of him as a "Christian" terrorist.
- In fact, he could just as easily be called a "left-wing" terrorist: He hated Israel, opposed the Iraq War, thought 9/11 was an inside job, hated Fox News, hated neo-cons, hated Bush and McCain, and finally he hated Christianity, and said he was a socialist (the Nazis were collectivists).
- He referred to "the insane teachings of Jesus", and said the gospels are: "stuffed with lies, miracles, guilt trips, betrayal, virgin birth, eternal damnation, salvation - a scenario appealing to the superstitious, vulnerable, ignorant yearning sheep - he named his hoax "Christianity." ... "Christianity" destroyed Roman Civilization."So he is not a Christian terrorist.
- Austin tax office suicide attack in Feb 2010, has been labelled a "right-wing" terrorist.
- Pentagon shooting in Mar 2010, has been labelled a "right-wing" terrorist.
- Roger Stockham arrested in Jan 2011 for threatening a Detroit mosque.
- But, far from being a Tea Party member, he's leftist / Islamic / mentally ill.
- He is a convert to Islam, and said in the threats that he was: "a local Muslim terrorist on a roll." A witness saysthat he: "called himself a mujahedeen".
- In fact, this seems to be a case of a Sunni threatening a Shia mosque. And more. Not quite the Tea Party narrative, then.
- Acts 17 Apologetics point out that some people rushed to call him a "Christian" terrorist, and the local Police Chief even said: "He picked Dearborn as a stop because of the huge Arab and Muslim population." When in fact he picked a Shia Muslim mosque because he was a Sunni Muslim.
- In a similar phenomenon to the Tucson blood libel against Sarah Palin, people even accused Acts 17 Apologetics of inciting the attack! They have a lovely response: "It seems that our hate speech (i.e. drawing attention to disturbing facts about Islam, while maintaining our love for Muslims) somehow caused the Sunni-Shia split. Perhaps Jem believes that Nabeel and I constructed an Acts 17 time machine, travelled back to 632 and caused division in the Muslim community right after Muhammad died. Perhaps I went to Abu Bakr and said, "Hey! You should be leader!" Then Nabeel went to Ali and said, "You're better than Abu Bakr!" Fourteen centuries later, the division we caused led a Sunni convert to attack a mosque. Acts 17 must be even craftier than we thought!"
- The Washington Navy Yard shooting of Sept 2013 was not blamed on the right, but it was fascinating that the shooter turned out to be an Obama supporter.
- A friend said about him: "He was more of a liberal type; he wasn't happy with the former [Bush] administration. He was more happy with this [the Obama] administration -- as far as presidential administrations."
- Of course, primarily he was mentally ill.
- But don't you think that if he was a Tea Party supporter, all hell would have broken loose?
- It also emerged that the shooter created a webpage with the name "Mohammed Salem", though there is no evidence he was Muslim.
- The Las Vegas shooters in June 2014 were labelled as "right-wing".
- Max Fisher gives an account of a horrific anti-Muslim crime in Dec 2014: "In December, a man in Kansas City wrote on his SUV that the Koran was a "disease worse than Ebola," then drove it into a 15-year-old Muslim boy in front of a local mosque, severing his legs and killing him."
- The Chapel Hill shooting in Feb 2015 was called a right-wing anti-Muslim hate crime.
- However, it emerged that the shooter was a left-wing atheist who hated the GOP and was a fan of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- Max Fisher portrays the murder of Ahmed Al-Jumaili in Texas in Mar 2015 as an anti-Muslim hate crime.
- Again, I am not denying that there is right-wing terrorism (as well as left-wing terrorism). I am only disputing certain attacks and certain lists.
Left-wing v. right-wing violence