The way I look at it, Islamism has as much to do with Islam as scientism has to do with science. (And before you argue that scientism never killed anybody, the victims of Social Darwinism and eugenics would probably beg to differ.)
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The sad thing is that if you think about it, white supremacy has been the concept of what it means to be American since before the beginning. Even in the early 20th century some types of white people were considered unassimilable. This didn’t really change until the 1960s which saw the (almost) complete legalization of the citizenship of people of color. But I’m certain lots of Americans still think people of color are unassimilable.
Donald Trump: American-born Orlando shooter “born an Afghan” • 2016 Jun 13 • Tara Golshan • Vox
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Improved mental health access is often touted in the wake of mass shootings, often in lieu of any meaningful anti-gun proliferation efforts.
This is problematic because, while, yes, we do need improved mental health access, most people with mental illness are not violent, and most murderers and other violent people are not mentally ill.
The failure is greater and broader and lies in American culture, specifically in the sense that American culture disdains a strong social safety net. Improved mental health access doesn’t even begin to address the major factors that drive people to violence.
We would need to address our failures at dealing with domestic violence, our generalized inability to protect those who need the most protection, our refusal to sufficiently fund law enforcement agencies because we don’t want to pay taxes, and even if we do fund them, they tend to have a misguided focus on reactive punishment of crime and long-term incarceration—particularly of non-violent criminals—rather than prevention of crime and rehabilitation of criminals—and often times for profit.
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There are significant differences between Islamists and Muslims and conflating the two is a major category error.
There are, however, not very many differences between Islamists and Christianists in terms of their hatred of freedom and their total hypocrisy in their respective alleged faiths.
Sacramento Baptist Preacher Praises Orlando Gay Nightclub Attack • 2016 Jun 13 • Angela Musallam • CBS Sacramento
While Donald Trump harangues President Obama for refusing to label the Orlando gunman a “radical Islamic terrorist” and Hillary Clinton undermines the president by repeatedly using the term herself, it seems more and more like it’s not particularly warranted.
It’s seems like this guy was driven primarily by generalized hatred and his desire to kill people and less by any coherent radical ideology.
FBI director: Mateen claimed loyalty to Islamist groups that are opposed to each other • 2016 Jun 14 • Matt Pearce • L.A. Times
Orlando shooter may not have understood differences between ISIS, al-Qaida, Hezbollah • 2016 Jun 13 • Times-Picayune
The distinction is critically important because of how law enforcement, national intelligence, and possibly military resources are deployed. If this guy was just some idiotic rando with no clue there’s totally no point in hard core counterterrorism measures. It’s a waste of our fucking time, energy, and emotional effort.1
Using his declarations of allegiance to Islamist groups in opposition to each other as evidence that he was an Islamist and then deploying law enforcement, national intelligence, and military assets to investigate/surveil/neutralize Islamist groups makes as much sense as calling a mass shooter who declared simultaneous allegiance to the KKK, the Black Panthers, and Aztlán separatists as someone motivated primarily by racism instead of someone who just wanted to fuck shit up.2
And this is one of those issues where the difference between Clinton and Sanders (and Obama) is obvious, and a legitimate reason why lots of progressives don’t like her.
Like the POTUS, I would also like to know what people think the utility of calling it “radical Islam” is, other than giving people a shoddy excuse to discriminate against, beat up, or kill Muslims or people they think are Muslims.
Obama Smacks Down Donald Trump, Says Using “Radical Islam” Plays into Terrorists‘ Hands • 2016 Jun 14 • Luke Brinker • Policy.Mic