Counterterrorism targets Muslims while downplaying surging White supremacist violence

Evidence

That CVE programs focus exclusively on Muslim communities signals to the public that Muslims warrant collective suspicion and confirm international terrorists’ narratives that America is at war with Islam. The Trump administration made clear its exclusive focus on terrorism committed by Muslims when, in January 2017, the name of the CVE program was changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism.” Meanwhile, White supremacist violence has been growing at an alarming rate over the past decade, culminating in a right-wing insurgency on January 6, 2021, evincing that counterterrorism is more about anti-Muslim racism than national security. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 950

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces the claim that moral panics name a folk devil while ignoring comparable or worse threats, echoing Cohen’s panic framework. — connects to: Nearly eight in ten US domestic terror attacks in 2018 were white supremacy motivated. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 231; White domestic terror produced immigration crackdowns targeting Muslims and Latinos — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 257