A count by a research center found that non-Muslim extremists have been far more lethal than Islamic militants on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001, running counter to public perception.
Source: Homegrown Extremists Tied to Deadlier Toll Than Jihadists in U.S. Since 9/11 – The New York Times
This comment though really brings home why there is such disparity in how people in this nation view the attacks differently.
JonJ
Philadelphia 20 hours ago
“ ‘We understand white supremacists,’ [William Braniff] said. ‘We don’t really feel like we understand Al Qaeda, which seems too complex and foreign to grasp.’ ”
People tend to feel that they understand what fits into their preconceived picture of the world, and what supports their deeply felt religious and moral principles. Gov. Haley and others said that what the shooter in Charleston did was “incomprehensible” because a white man shooting 9 people in a church was incompatible with their notion of how the world works, or should work.
Americans “understand” Islamic terrorists because Islam is a foreign-seeming religion which is so far outside of most Americans’ ideas of how the world works that it is “understandable” that Muslims would do terrible things. In fact, it’s “understandable” that all Muslims would secretly sympathize with terrorists, despite what they say in public. But ordinary-looking young white men don’t do what Roof did, unless of course they’re “crazy,” so his action can be explained by mental illness and we don’t have to link it to racism as a general social fact. This is how everything that happens gets interpreted and re-interpreted until it fits people’s preconceptions.