Nov 4, 2018

The rise of white nationalism in America

Axios

Police tape at Tree of Life Synagogue — Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photo: Matthew Hatcher/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

For two decades, U.S. counterterrorism policy has focused almost entirely on combatting American and foreign-born jihadis, failing to recognize the growing threat of far-right extremism, writes Janet Reitman for the cover of next week's New York Times Magazine.

Why it matters: A string of domestic terrorism attacks has drawn new scrutiny to law enforcement's inability to squash the violent tendencies of the far-right — a crisis with roots that stretch back more than a decade, writes Reitman, who is working on a book about the rise of the far-right in post-9/11 America.

By the numbers: Far-right extremists have killed more people since 9/11 than any other category of domestic terrorism.

71% of extremist-related deaths between 2008 and 2017 were committed by members of a far-right movement, while Islamic extremists were responsible for 26%, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Between 2002 and 2017, the U.S. spent $2.8 trillion on counterterrorism. In that time frame, terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists killed 100 people in the U.S.
Between 2008 and 2017, meanwhile, domestic extremists killed 387 people.

The bottom line "These statistics belie the strident rhetoric around 'foreign-born' terrorists that the Trump administration has used to drive its anti-immigration agenda," per Reitman.

Worthy of your time.

Add Axios on Google

The rise of white nationalism in America

What to read next