Since 9/11, there have been almost twice as many terrorist plots from non-Muslims as there have been from Muslims... but you'd never know that if you got all your news from Fox or other right-wing Christian sources. It's true that terrorism from Muslim extremists is a threat -- but so is terrorism from non-Muslims.
In fact, you may have more to fear from non-Muslims than from Muslims. Since 9/11, There have been 45 domestic terrorist plots involving Muslims and 80 terrorist plots involving non-Muslims. The latter group includes 63 domestic terrorist plots involving Christians -- white supremacists and other right-wing extremists. That's far more than Muslims and most of the plots involving Muslims were broken up based on intelligence provided by the Muslim community.
Anti-Government/Anti-Tax Extremists: There have been 36 plots by right-wing extremists since 9/11. These attacks include Joseph Stack's suicide attack on a Texas IRS building and Joshua Cartwright, who became enraged after the election of Barack Obama and "believed that the US Government was conspiring against him."
KKK/NeoNazi/White Supremacist: There have been 27 plots by white supremacists since 9/11. These attacks include a 2004 letter bombing of the Arizona Office of Diversity and Dialogue that injured three employees.
Unknown/Miscellaneous: There were five attacks that federal crime officials did not categorize.
Christian Extremists/Anti-Abortion: There were three attacks by anti-abortion extremists and Christian extremists. The killing of abortion provider George Tiller is the most prominent of these attacks.
Black Supremacist Cults: There were two plots by black supremacist cults.
Jewish Extremists: There were two plots by Jewish extremists. The most prominent of these was a plot by Robert Goldstein to attack a local Islamic center with home made C4 and other explosives.
Extreme Anti-Immigrant: There were two plots by anti-immigrant extremists. One of these was the attack by Shawn Forde, who murdered a Queens deli clerk and was motivated by racist and anti-immigrant feelings.
Anti-Jewish: There was one plot by an anti-Semitic extremist. Norman Leboon made anti-Semitic threats against Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).
Anarchist: There was a single plot by an anarchist. Joseph D. Konopka "wreaked havoc in 13 counties by setting fires, disrupting radio and television broadcasts, disabling an air traffic control system, selling counterfeit software, and damaging the computer system of an Internet service provider."
Source: Think Progress
When so-called "experts" and politicians like Rep. Peter King insist that they are only focusing on Muslim groups because Muslims are the primary source of terrorist threats to America, you'll know that they are lying. They are lying because this information is available to anyone who looks -- and anyone who presents themselves as caring about terrorism will have looked.
There are legitimate reasons to be concerned with Muslim extremists, but those reasons are not the only reason why so many people focus on Muslims. There are also a lot of people who simply don't like Muslims. Sometimes it's because they are foreigners. Sometimes its because of their skin color. Sometimes it's simply because they are following the "wrong" religion. We should not imagine that the existence of legitimate concerns means that everyone concerned is legitimate or has a legitimate interest in these matters.
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