It's not just in the UK where planning mass-murder to achieve political aims doesn't count as terrorism (if you're a white supremacist and/or Christian fundamentalist) — in the USA, groups like the Phineas Priesthood can inspire acts of wanton gunplay in populated cities without inspiring the zomgwereallgonnadiedrunhide 24-hour-news-cycle lunacy.
Most recently, Larry McQuilliams fired more than 100 rounds in downtown Austin, targeting the Mexican consulate, leaving behind a cache of weapons and ammo and a map with 34 other planned mayhem sites, including churches. McQuilliams was seemingly affiliated with the violent white supremacist/Christian fundamentalist Phineas Priesthood.
He was just the most recent person to commit acts of unthinkable terrorist violence on US soil in the name of Christ, a fact that hardly rises to the level of news in America's national discourse, where the relatively rare incidents of terror in the name of Islam eclipse acts of "Christian" violence and mayhem that often match and beat them, bullet-for-bullet, body-for-body.
Chillingly, experts warn that something like Breivik's attack could easily happen in the United States. Daryl Johnson, a former Department of Homeland Security analyst, said in a 2010 interview that the Hutaree, an extremist militia group in Michigan that touts Christian inspiration, possessed a cache of weapons larger than all the Muslims charged with terrorism the United States since the September 11 attacks combined.
Yet unlike the accusatory responses to domestic jihadist incidents such as the Fort Hood massacre, news of McQuilliams' possible ties to the Christian Identity movement has yet to produce a reaction among prominent conservative Christians. Greta Van Susteren, for instance, has not asked Christian leaders such as Pope Francis, Rick Warren, or Billy Graham onto her show to speak out against violence committed in name of Christ. Rather, the religious affiliation of McQuilliams, like the faith of many right-wing extremists, has largely flown under the radar, as he and others like him are far more likely to be dismissed as mentally unstable "lone wolfs" than products of extremist theologies.
The Christian Terrorist Movement No One Wants To Talk About [Jack Jenkins/Thinkprogress]
(via Warren Ellis)
