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White supremacy and domestic terrorism prosecution


What's happening now?

The threat of White Supremacy and White Nationalism is finally recognized as the greatest domestic threat to the United States.

This violence is not only directed towards Black and Brown communities and religious minorities (‘Unite the Right rally’, 2017), but also towards our elected officials (Capitol Insurrection, 2021).  Despite overwhelming evidence identifying White Supremacy as the greatest domestic threat, government agencies and law enforcement disproportionately target, surveil and harass Muslim Americans and Black and Brown communities under the flag of countering domestic extremism programs.

“Among DVEs, racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists — specifically white supremacist extremists — will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.” — DHS, Homeland Threat Assessment (October 2020)

Additionally, despite these findings and clear cut statutory definitions of domestic terrorism, White Supremacists, along with most White perpetrators who commit violent hate crimes, continue to avoid the 51 statutory ‘Federal Terrorism Charges’ and statutes that pose penalties under acts of domestic terrorism, which is nearly never the case for Muslim Americans. 

'DOMESTIC TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT' PROGRESS:
22%

(Updated 12/29/2021) Sponsorship: 204 in House & 2 in Senate. 

 

Note – progress is based on (1) co-sponsorship of bill by members of Congress, (2) passage of bill through either the House (45%) or Senate (45%), and (3) finally being signed by the president (10%).

Emgage Action and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) have developed a report to:

 
  • Recognize the disproportionate impact domestic terrorism statutes and uneven application of resources have had on Muslim Americans and Black and Brown communities. 
  • Prevent further expansion of domestic terrorism charges. 
  • Review the double standards in the application of domestic terrorism statutes and Federal Terrorism Charges involving white supremacists versus Muslim Americans. 
  • Shift federal and law enforcement resources to tackle the real threat of domestic terrorism — white supremacy — by highlighting empirical data. 
  • Strategize how existing Federal Terrorism Charges can be used to charge White Supremacist domestic terrorism to the full extent of the law.

 

As our government seeks to address this threat, it is critical that law enforcement and national security agencies apply the same standards irrespective of the ethnicity or religion of perpetrators. The double standards applied in the past have disproportionally targeted communities of color and subjected them to unnecessary surveillance and harassment. Muslims who commit acts of mass violence are often linked to foreign terror organizations and prosecuted accordingly, while White counterparts are not, despite ample evidence pointing to the global nature of white supremacy. 

 

Emgage Action and MPAC have created this package to change the narrative in Congress – that terrorism prevention programs should not target specific faith-based or ethnic groups, but should instead use consistent application of existing laws. Check out our full report by clicking here.

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