Christian Terrorism

Christian Terrorism

The Blatant Double-Standard

“Terrorist” is a common term that we, as Americans, have heard way too much from the media. It’s also one that’s been weaponized, politicized, and racialized beyond recognition. When most Americans hear it, they picture a brown man with a beard shouting “Allahu Akbar” in the middle of a war-torn desert.

They don’t picture a white man in a MAGA hat stockpiling AR-15s, or a Catholic extremist bombing an abortion clinic, that’s the problem. The media, our politicians, and our culture have conditioned us to associate terrorism with the religion of Islam and Arab people, while inversely giving Christianity and whiteness a free pass.

Any instance of a Muslim individual committing an act of violence, the headlines immediately jump to labeling it a “TERRORIST ATTACK”. It doesn’t matter if it’s one guy with a kitchen knife or someone allegedly “radicalized online”; the narrative is immediate and unforgiving. If you flip that script, though, where a white Christian shoots up a Black church? Well he must be “mentally ill.” If a neo-Nazi runs over a protester in Charlottesville,, he’s must just be a “lone wolf.” A white nationalist murdering 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso after writing a manifesto? Still “mentally disturbed,” definitely not a “terrorist.”

It’s interesting how that label never seems to stick to them.