Call a terrorist a terrorist

Police are investigating the shooting of nine African Americans at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston as a hate crime committed by a white man.

The horrific attack was allegedly carried out by a young white man who appeared to have deliberately targeted the church simply because it was serving African-Americans. Witnesses say the suspect said he was there "to shoot black people," a law enforcement official said.

The alleged killer Dylann Roof. Photo: AFP

By any reasonable standard, this is terrorism, which is generally defined as an act of violence against civilians by individuals or organizations for political purposes.

But listen to major media outlets and you won't hear the word "terrorism" used in coverage of this latest shooting. You won't hear the white male shooter, identified as 21-year-old Dylann Roof, described as "a possible terrorist." And if coverage of recent shootings by white suspects is any indication, he never will be. Instead, the go-to explanation for his actions will be mental illness. He will be humanized and called sick, a victim of mistreatment or inadequate mental health resources.

But do the thought experiment: If this attack on the church in Charleston had been conducted by a Muslim man shouting "Allahu akbar," what is already a big news story would have become even bigger, as it would appear to fit so well into the political and media narrative that Muslim militants are the major terrorist problem in the United States.

That's a false narrative, as it turns out. In fact, deadly acts of terrorism by virulent racists and anti-government extremists have been more common in the United States than deadly acts of jihadist terrorism since 9/11.

There is something particularly shocking in a multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious society about murdering people simply because of who they are. That's true whether it's African-Americans in Charleston attending a Bible study group or spectators at the Boston Marathon. These attacks are acts designed to terrorize, and we should call them such.

According to a count by New America, since 9/11, 26 people have been killed in jihadist terrorist attacks in the United States, while extremist right-wing racists and anti-government militants have killed 48, if we include the nine people who were killed in the attack in Charleston, which is being investigated as a hate crime.

Jihadist violence continues to dominate the news and the attention of policymakers. Some of this is quite understandable. After all, on 9/11, al Qaeda killed almost 3,000 people. Yet, as a matter of the public safety, there really is no difference between terrorism that is purportedly committed in the name of Allah and killing that is committed for other political ends, such as the racist beliefs about African-Americans that appear to have motivated Thursday's attack in Charleston.