OPINION: White House list of 78 terrorist attacks it claims media ignored ignores terrorism by white people

Yesterday the White House officially released a list of 78 terrorist attackscarried out by Islamic State (IS) supporters--in the USand abroad, between September 2014 to December 2016--claiming that these attacks were notreported, or wereunder-reported, in the media. Why did the White House publish such a document?

The list wasdistributed hours after Trumphad accused the media of downplaying terrorist attacks, The Hill reports."And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it," Trump said. Hesuggested that the media buried stories of terroristattacks for ulterior motives. "They have their own reasons, and you understand that," he said, without providingevidence.

Some of the attacks on the White House list have received majorcoverage in America, despite Trump's claim. But also included on the list weresmaller strikesoverseas that got less.

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Justifying the Muslim ban

The list comes as Trump has been panned, by lawmakers and by millionsaround the world,for a severe"travel ban" imposed on seven majority Muslim countries. Rudy Giulianni went on live TV to explain that Trump himself originally called this executive order a "Muslim ban", even as his administration publicly contests that nomenclature. But presumably the White House is publishing this list to make it appear like the Muslim ban is founded on rationale, not prejudice. The list is also aimednormalising Trump'sworld view.

Publishing a catalogue of Islamic terrorismis parallel to an earlierTrumppledge topublish a weekly list of crimes committed by undocumented immigrantsin sanctuary cities. Critics pointed out that this bore a resemblance to the list of crimes commited by Jewish people, keptbythe Institute for Reseach on the Jewish Question in Nazi Germany.

Highlighting the criminality of minorities is not designed to improve public safety, but to falsely create thisappearance.Further, it is designed to make people hate and fear minorities, and to make it appear like fear and hate are sensible.

Trump's silence speaks loudly

More, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said: "We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms...It's a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant and why the president is taking steps to be pro-active, rather re-active, when it comes to our nation's safety and security." Thus,mass murder perpetrated by a white French-Canadianagainst Muslim Canadiansis warped and recast as evidence supposedly supporting the need to ban Muslims from entering America. Spicer's response, which is essentially articulatingTrump's world view,isobjectively incoherent.

Stigmatising Muslims amidgeneral disinformation fromWhite House

The Trump administration's Islamophobiaalso comes amid a torrent from themof general disinformation.White House spokesperson Kellyanne Conway was broadly criticisedfor coiningthe Orwellian term "alternative facts"to justify Sean Spicer's palpably false claimthat the mediamisrepresented the crowd size at Trump's presidential inauguration.Reports are emergingof the White House shutting down a range of ordinarycommunication for variousimporant agencies.Trump just recentlydismissed as "Fake News" any poll that reflects negatively againsthim.

That the White House is activelydissemenating lies and shutting down open communication does not mean the media covering Trump is perfect!

BuzzFeed published criticism ofFake News with a liberal bent, as some Trump critics sensationalise half-truths,publish factually wrong information or outright fabrications.But the White House's criticism of the media seems to exist independently of media errors, and is designed toaccomplish at least two goals. The first is to create fear by bothstigmatisingminorities and to paint the state of the country as being in"carnage" that requiresa strongman leader to fix.The second is to discredit the media, not because they are sometimes inaccurate, but specifically becausethey areaccurate.

The White House's bias

The White Housepublishing alist of terrorism attacks is hardly the first time politicians have tried to manipulate the media into gettingheadlines they desire. The criticism is not merely that they're shaping the story, it's that their framing is biased: It stigmatisesMuslim citizens by associating Muslims in general with terrorism, and ignores terrorismcommitted by white people.

A 2015 article byBen Mathis-Lilley at Slatecorrectsthis record by publishing alist of terrorist attackscommitted by white Americans onUnited States soil. "White extremists" have killed at least 60 people in 23 deadly attacks since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Trump claims that anyfailure to utter"Radical Islamist terrorism" isdangerouspolitical correctness. EsssentiallyTrump,and he's far from alone in this, believes that liberals are so overeagerly tolerantthat in their misguidedeffort to be inclusivethat they ignore flagrant,fatalthreats in their midst.

This mindset presupposes that Muslims are uniquely and inherently dangerous, a bogus presumption which leads to two negative outcomes:Ahostile environment for millions of peaceful Muslims, and a society unguarded against thereal but officially unacknowledgeddanger of white terrorism, swallowed up as it is in the hysteria surounding areal but exaggerated threatposed byIslamic terrorism.

It also fails to take into account what should be a unifying and heartening truth,thatpeople of every religion and skin colour actually agree:Islamic terrorism is very bad! Muslims are disproportionately the victims of terrorism. Islamic State is in predominantly Muslim countrieskilling thousands of people, destroyingancient sitesand committing various other atrocities. Most of the peoplefighting against Islamic State areMuslims. Nobody likes Islamic State!

If Trump's onlyinterest is keeping Americans safe, why is he silent about the threat posed by white terrorists? Trump says that if a leader is unwilling tosay "Radical Islamist terrorism" aloud,they are incapable of protecting their society. They are soft on terror.But there is a class of terrorism about which Trumpis glaringly,hypocritically silent.Trump'ssilence is both dividing Americans and putting themat risk.

Who he systematically criticises and systematically ignores reveals much.

As a private citizen Trump was free to tweet how he liked,but he is issuingofficial White House communications now. His pledge to put Americafirst must apply equally forall Americans. This balance is required bothwhen keeping Americans safeand when condemning American murderers, too.

(WION)