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to Islamist extremism — and, even
then, the perpetrator had ties to white
supremacy. In 2018, the U.S. was
spared the mass murders by Islamist
extremists we’
ve seen in recent years.
To be clear, there were Islamist-
inspired terrorist plots and people
arrested on charges such as providing
support to such individuals. And we
have seen real challenges from this
type of violence abroad. However, it
is a reminder about the unfairness of
peddling anti-Muslim bias or making
hysterical claims about faith-based
extremists grounded in fiction rather
than fact.
And yet these statistics communi-
cate a clear message that the U.S. must
pay more attention to dangers posed
by domestic right-wing extremism
— without neglecting the genuine
need to prevent all forms of extremist
violence. There are more than a dozen
active right-wing extremist movements
in the U.S. that are violent, such as
white supremacists, anti-government
sovereign citizens and militias, and
anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant
extremists.
The fact is right-wing extremists
collectively have been responsible
for more than 70 percent of the 427
extremist-related killings over the
past 10 years, far outnumbering those
committed by left-wing extremists
or domestic Islamist extremists —
even with the sharp rise of Islamist-
extremist killings in the past five years.
These murder statistics send us a
clear message: Right-wing extremist
violence needs to be addressed. It will
not go away on its own. Indeed, as
the ADL
’
s Center on Extremism has
documented, the white supremacist
movement is growing. The Pittsburgh
synagogue shooting in October
was a reminder of what can happen
when anti-Semitism, a key ingredi-
ent of white supremacist bile, is left
unchecked. If we want a safe society
for Jews and all Americans, we must
address this problem.
Extremist, right-wing violence is
a problem that can be addressed.
Congress should ensure that the exec-
utive branch is tracking and focusing
on domestic terrorism through leg-
islation like the Domestic Terrorism
Prevention Act. The federal govern-
ment should collect data on domestic
terrorism and provide for training for
law enforcement on best practices.
Hate crimes laws can also be
improved. Five states still don’
t even
have a hate crimes law on their books.
Many other states have significant gaps
or weaknesses in their laws.
We also need to address our broken
hate crimes reporting system because it
is woeful. Hate crimes are significant-
ly underreported to the FBI because
of victims not coming forward or by
law enforcement agencies failing to
report hate crimes. This, too, must be
addressed.
We can and must do more to count-
er this growing threat of extremism.
We can promote anti-bias and civic
education programs. We can promote
programs within communities to
counter extremist propaganda and
recruiting. We can help educate the
technology sector about the need to
combat hate and extremism on its
platforms.
We can’
t solve extremism. But there
is so much more we should do to make
sure the people who died at the hands
of extremists in 2018 — and those who
died before them — did not perish in
vain. We can do better. ■
Jonathan A. Greenblatt is CEO and National
Director of the Anti-Defamation League.
A White Lives Matter rally in Austin, Texas, in 2017
commentary
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