Had his name been Mohammed we would be talking about homegrown terrorism, not guns or mental illness

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.truth-out.org/why-isnt-jared-lee-loughner-a-homegrown-terrorist66783

Why Isn't Jared Lee Loughner a Homegrown Terrorist?
Wednesday 12 January 2011

by: Sahar Aziz, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

How many more members of Congress have to be victims of politically motivated violence before we acknowledge terrorism is defined by the act and not the identity of the actor? Any person who "use{s} violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature ... through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear" is a terrorist.

While clearly suffering from some sort of mental disorder, Jared Lee Loughner was motivated to some extent by anti-government politics. Had his name been Mohammed, we would be talking about homegrown terrorism, not gun control or mental illness.

The tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is a wakeup call that religious profiling does not work. While our nation was obsessed with Muslim "homegrown terrorism," Loughner stealthily planned his terrorist scheme.
It is no secret that since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI has focused its anti-terrorism efforts on Muslims. snip

As our law enforcement fixates on young Muslim males in the legitimate goal to stop domestic terrorism, those outside the profile execute their terrorist acts undetected. Thus, it should come as no surprise that when law enforcement misguidedly focus their resources investigating individuals and communities based on ineffective racial or religious profiles, they miss the Loughners of the world.

[villager]

1. Unrecc'd by the "let white rightwingers slide" crowd -- evidently

n/t

[madinmaryland]

3. It was unrecc'd by the "let the gun-thumpers slide" crowd -- evidently

[villager]

4. Could be. "Gun-thumpers" correctly describes the fervor around those particular fetish objects

...however.

[malaise]

5. Rec for the unrec

Indeed the mad psychiatrist at Fort Hood could not get away with that excuse.

[TheKentuckian]

9. What the hell is up with that? Surely, it isn't that big of a leap of any imagination

that this particular tact isn't effective and maybe...just maybe allows a festering of some degree or another.

The lack of accountability tends to only encourage the authoritarian types to keep pushing the envelope until limits are established. Limits with a cost beyond the benefits of exceeding them.

We fail in part because we refuse to accept who we are "dealing" with and adopt tactics that demonstrate that kind of internalizing.

[KamaAina]

2. Or Juan, for that matter

as mentioned by a Latina commentator on NPR earlier:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=192722&mesg_id=192722

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I'll go where the author will not

this way of talking of Mr. Laughner as a terrairst leads to ... the RW media machine... we really do not want to go there...

Hartman covered this in the morning very well thank you very much with Stochastic Terrorism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x194198

Nope, that is not a rabbit hole we want to go down... not at all.

[JackRiddler]

7. absolutely the case - thanks for post

[xchrom]

8. Recommend