Domestic Terrorism in the America Context - Case Study Example

Domestic terrorism in the America context Introduction A modern nascent anarchist movement that continues its opposition to globalism such as modern leftist movement can be described as a domestic terrorism organization. There is a high potential of violence originating from modern extremists on the left (Martin 445). The postwar ideological extremist in US led to Leftist and Right political movements that perpetuated different ideologies. United States is an idiosyncratic subject since most of the domestic terrorism related activities originated from the left and right-wing political spectrums. Domestic terrorism is mainly conducted by groups and individuals espousing extremist leftist and rightist ideologies that have a distinct organizational structure (Levin 72). The Leftists ideological profile is Left-wing nationalist and mainly targets the urban areas and suburbs while the Rightist consists of the racial supremacists and antigovernment religious affiliated groups. Modern American Leftist grew from the political groups of 1960s and their extremist trends led to massive political violence. The Leftist groups initially concentrated on civil rights struggles through massive boycotts and political gatherings that aimed at moral persuasions. However, their extremist activities led to numerous shootings, bombings and mass murders of individuals that opposed their ideologies thus forcing the US government to enact laws that safeguarded the civil liberties of all citizens (Martin 440). The ideologies of movements like Black Power Movement emphasized on cultural reawakening, economic self-sufficiency and political rights and their ideologies were communicated through music, dress code, art and dance (Borgeson and Valeri 8). The New Leftist movements started after 1960s and aimed at furthering political and social causes such as women rights and political rights. New Left supported contemporary political revolutionaries such as Vietnamese revolutionaries, Palestinian and Cuban revolutionaries through challenging the mainstream American society and adopted an alternative lifestyle that is characterized by drug abuse and street crime. The New Left and Black Power movements in the US started radicalization through staging civil disobedience and advocating for overthrowing of the legitimate US government. The violent acts of New Left led to several explosives, bombings, shootings and assaults and high lightened political violence led to birth of similar Leftist groups such as United Freedom Front and Black Panther that organized themselves in to militias (Levin 104) The conspiracy and mystical beliefs of the American right has a high potential of political violence from the adherents of these theories to the current American environment. According to conspiracy theories, many of the American Right groups have organized themselves in to citizens’ militias that promote racial supremacy. American right groups such as Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and Creativity Movement only support their own political agendas and have developed mystical foundations for their beliefs that operate like a cult. KKK has a high potential of targeting Jews, immigrants, African Americans and Catholics. The harsh economic conditions prevailing in the US coupled with the increased ability to access explosives will enhance the ability of American right to participate in political violence (Martin 446). The changes in racial demographics such as high influx of non-white immigrants have led to social distress among white supremacists who continue to blame the illegal immigrants for their worsening economic and social life. The American Right has been accused of numerous terror-related activities in the recent past such as April 2014 shooting attack on Jewish Community center that left 3 people dead and August 2012 shooting attack on Sikh temple that killed 6 people. The modern American environment is characterized by shifting racial composition dynamics and religious pluralism thus American Right has a high potential of committing political violence on the other religious groups and racial minorities (Valentine 84). As a matter of policy, the US law enforcement agencies should closely monitor hate and antigovernment groups and certain restrictions must imposed on their political activities. The law enforcement agencies must monitor activities of Leftist and Right-Wing hate and antigovernment groups that continue to perpetuate domestic violence and oppose various government policies. The US government should impose restrictions on the activities of these groups. For instance, the government should prohibit the publishing and dissemination of information that fuels racial or religious based tensions (Martin 438). The US government should ban the hate groups from procuring weapons and illegal assembly that may lead to massive shootings or even disturbance of domestic peace. The government should control the funding of these groups and former service members must be restricted from participating in activities of groups that have been labeled as hate groups. For instance, the Rights have contributed heavily to fighting gun control legislation and are pushing for anti-LGBT equality rights. Although Hate groups such as Ku Klux Klan activities have declined substantially, Patriots groups have increased their activities due to the existing economic, social and political environment in the US. The hate groups favor race, religion, and ethnicity and hate groups associated with Right Supremacists have started attacking Muslims (Valentine 81). Anti-government groups have formed militias that continue to oppose government laws as evidenced by killing of Colorado’s prison Chief by white supremacists. The US policy must ensure law enforcement agencies investigate all criminal violations by hate and anti-government groups and hate crimes directed at the US government or American population should be prosecuted as acts of domestic terrorism. American activity profile is truly an idiosyncratic profile since it cannot be compared with other nation’s environments. Domestic terrorism in America is an idiosyncratic political violence since indigenous terrorist groups from the political and social environments during the early years tuned to extremism and started to engage in political violence. The US domestic violence has its origins from political, ideological and social struggles of different racial, religious and ethnic groups in the society. The contemporary US racial demographic composition favored the White Supremacists who used political violence to silence racial minority movements such as Black Power movements, but the racial demographic composition has changed to favor the racial minorities who have united in making political decisions as evidenced by the election of an African-American President in 2008. In other countries, domestic terrorism has a religious ideological aspect since Muslim extremists are responsible for nearly 90 percent of the terror-related activities in other countries (Martin 408). There is a high likelihood that the 21st century will witness a resurgence of a rightist movement on the scale of the 1990 Patriot movement due to the recent activities of political violence groups. Patriot movement was responsible for the Oklahoma bombings and its militia activities have intensified since the election of Barrack Obama as President. The Right wing extremist groups are currently frustrated by the laxity of the US government in controlling illegal immigration and there is a possibility that these groups will direct violence towards immigration-related targets such as illegal immigrants. The rightists have taken advantage of the jobless veterans to recruit and radicalize these individuals in order to acquire military and combat skills that will be essential in conducting mass shootings and bombings within American soil. The contemporary US environment is characterized by increased gun-related violence and recent efforts by the government to tighten the licensing of firearms have led to stockpiling by Rightists groups and increased extremist activities among the white supremacists who believe that they have a right to own guns (Valentine 80). Accordingly, the recent economic downturns and massive employment in the US has provided opportunity for Right-wing extremists to recruit jobless youths who support their causes (Borgeson and Valeri 10). Since 2000, the number of hate groups has increased by more than 50 percent due to the worsening economic conditions and the election of Barrack Obama as the first African-American President. The Right wing extremist has been fueled by politicians and media personalities who continue to use different platforms to legitimize their false ideologies on immigrants and minority communities especially after Obama administration stated issuing citizens to individuals who white supremacists perceive as illegal immigrants (Martin 421). The white supremacists politicians continue to attack LGBT people and Muslims especially in Oklahoma residents supported amendments to state constitution to ban Shariah Law in state courts. Conclusion Modern Leftist movement should be considered as a domestic terrorism organization with a high potential of political violence due to the high globalization of the world economy. Conspiracy and mystical beliefs of the American right indicate there is a high possibility of violence since many white supremacists believe that Obama is not a citizen of the US and the ongoing economic hardships have resulted from illegal immigrants. The hate groups and anti-government groups must be closely monitored and restrictions should be imposed on the dissemination of hate speech and recruitment of former service members to their ranks. There is a high likelihood that 21st century will witness resurgence of Rightist violence due to ongoing racial demography changes, issuance of citizenships to illegal immigrants and increased gun-related violence by the white supremacists. Works cited: Borgeson, Kevin and Valeri, Robin. Terrorism in America. New York: Jones and Bartlett. 2009. Levin, Jack. Domestic terrorism. New York: Infobase. 2006. Martin, Gus. Understanding terrorism: challenges, perspectives, and issues. New York: Sage. 2010. Valentine, Gary. Politics and the occult: the left, the right, and the radically unseen. New York: Quest Books. 2008. Read More