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Religious/Extremist Terrorism: Non-Muslim edition

The Bread Guy

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This from the Washington Post:
The “Crusaders” knew they wanted to kill Muslims — and with luck, use the “bloodbath” to ignite a religious war — but for months they couldn’t settle on a plan.

The easiest way would be to grab guns, go to the predominantly Somali-Muslim apartment complex they’d been surveilling and start kicking in doors, court documents said. They would spare no one, not even babies.

In the end, they decided to set off bombs similar to the one Timothy McVeigh used in 1995 to kill 168 people in Oklahoma City. They planned to strike after the Nov. 8 election, investigators said ...
More from the U.S. Dep't of Justice:
Curtis Allen and Gavin Wright, both 49, and of Liberal, Kansas, and Patrick Eugene Stein, 47, of Wright, Kansas, appeared in federal court to face a charge of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives), in connection with their plot to detonate bombs at an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas where Somali immigrants live and worship.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall of the District of Kansas.

“According to the complaint, these three defendants conspired to conduct a bombing attack against an apartment complex occupied by men, women and children in the Garden City, Kansas community,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “Protecting our nation from such attacks, whether they are rooted in domestic or international terrorism, is our highest priority.”

“These charges are based on eight months of investigation by the FBI that is alleged to have taken the investigators deep into a hidden culture of hatred and violence,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Beall. “Many Kansans may find it as startling as I do that such things could happen here.”

The complaint alleges that since February the FBI has been investigating the defendants’ activities, including their plans to carry out a violent attack against Muslims in southwestern Kansas.  The defendants were key members of a militia group that referred to itself as the Crusaders.  A confidential source attended meetings of the group and provided the FBI with information about the defendants’ activities.

The criminal complaint alleges that the men conducted surveillance to identify potential targets, stockpiled firearms, ammunition and explosive components, and planned to issue a manifesto in conjunction with the planned bombing. The attack, the defendants said, would be intended to “wake people up.”

After considering possible targets, the defendants decided to conduct the attack on a Garden City, Kansas apartment complex that houses a mosque and a large number of members of the Somali community. They discussed obtaining four vehicles, filling them with explosives and parking them at the four corners of the apartment complex to create a large explosion.

On Oct.12, Stein met with an undercover FBI employee in rural Finney County, Kansas.  After examining and test firing automatic weapons, Stein took the source to see the apartment building that the defendants were targeting in Garden City, Kansas. Stein said he would provide ammonium nitrate for the bomb and contribute $200 to $300 for other materials.

Stein also talked with the undercover employee about defendant Allen’s arrest in a domestic violence case in Liberal, Kansas the previous day, Oct. 11. Stein said he was concerned that Allen’s girlfriend would give the Liberal Police Department in Kansas information about the defendants’ plans.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. If convicted of any offense, the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Investigating agencies included the FBI, the Liberal Police Department, the Seward County Sheriff’s Office, the Ford County Sheriff’s Office, the Garden City Police Department, the Dodge City Police Department, the Finney County Sheriff’s Office, and Kansas Highway Patrol, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi for the District of Kansas and Counterterrorism Section Trial Attorney David Cora are prosecuting this case.

- OP edit to broaden the title category a bit -
 
It's also been done before within the same religion, of course, usually in a spectacular fashion:

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedite_eos._Novit_enim_Dominus_qui_sunt_eius


 
daftandbarmy said:
Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedite_eos._Novit_enim_Dominus_qui_sunt_eius
Ah, the original "Kill 'em all - let God sort 'em out" - thanks for sharing that.
 
So we have one discussion for Muslim religious terrorism, and one for all other known religions.  Anyone want to take bets which one will have the shorter list of outrages?
 
Brad Sallows said:
So we have one discussion for Muslim religious terrorism, and one for all other known religions.  Anyone want to take bets which one will have the shorter list of outrages?

To be fair to the Muslims, they only got started in earnest about a couple of hundred years ago, so have quite a bit of ground to make up, especially to catch up with characters like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
 
Well the nastiest non-Islamic group would be the Lords Resistance Army, their leader claimed a religious connection, but I think he is/was just outright bonkers and don’t recall them every really claiming any religious motivation.
 
Colin P said:
Well the nastiest non-Islamic group would be the Lords Resistance Army, their leader claimed a religious connection, but I think he is/was just outright bonkers and don’t recall them every really claiming any religious motivation.

Well considering Christian extremists still consider witch burning a thing... I am not so sure. Africa has quite a bit of 'Christian Extremists' but they are called 'militia's'

Burn witches
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/centralafricanrepublic/12018588/Christian-militias-in-Central-African-Republic-burnt-witches-at-stake-says-UN-report.html

Convert or die
http://www.mintpressnews.com/christian-militias-in-the-car-give-muslims-a-choice-convert-or-die/208491/

Etc etc I don't have the time to show how idiots around the world murder innocents. Just because some people do something claiming xyz religion, it doesnt mean squat.
 
It seems that the FBI didn't do the takedown in the typical manner as they have with Islamic radicals in the US. In the majority of those cases they have used undercover operatives to act as fellow supporters and provided access to "explosives" and materials to make a bomb, then carefully lead them down the path. In many of those cases, the defendants would not have had the means or ability to get the plot any further without the help of the FBI. One or two cases have been thrown out because of that.

But with this one, the people were fully capable, and had progressed to the point of getting ready to move on their plans. That makes this a very worrisome case indeed.
 
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from the Guardian 2013 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/22/central-african-republic-verge-of-genocide

What started as a political movement against the corrupt and autocratic Bozizé is now taking on an ominously religious character. Nearly all the Seleka are Muslim, including mercenaries from neighbouring Chad and the notorious Janjaweed from Sudan's Darfur region. An "us and them" mentality of mutual distrust and paranoia is taking root, with some Christians taking up arms in vigilante militias known as "anti-balaka" — meaning anti-sword or anti-machete — and committing atrocities of their own, giving the Seleka a pretext for yet more aggression. The spiral of violence has become a recruiting sergeant for thousands of child soldiers.

 
Colin P said:
... with some Christians taking up arms in vigilante militias known as "anti-balaka" — meaning anti-sword or anti-machete — and committing atrocities of their own, giving the Seleka a pretext for yet more aggression.

I wonder if they see the irony in this.
 
U.S. DOJ news release archives are making for interesting reading - this tidbit, from earlier this week:
Missouri Man Who Set Fire to Mosque and Who Attempted Arson at Planned Parenthood Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison

Jedediah Stout, 32, of Joplin, Missouri, was sentenced today in the Western District of Missouri to 63 months in prison for setting fire to the Islamic Society of Joplin mosque as well as for two attempted arsons of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Joplin, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson of the Western District of Missouri.

Stout pleaded guilty on April 18, 2016, to a four-count information that charged him with one count of damage to the Islamic Society of Joplin mosque, two counts of arson at a Planned Parenthood facility in Joplin and one count of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.  Stout was also ordered to pay $701,971 in restitution.

Stout, who told investigators that he did not like Islam as a religion, admitted in his guilty plea to setting a fire that destroyed the mosque on Aug. 6, 2012.  The mosque served families from neighboring states, many of whom provided funding for the operation of the mosque.  As a direct result of the fire, many donations made during the Muslim holy period of Ramadan were destroyed.

In his guilty plea, Stout also admitted to two arson attempts on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, 2013, against the Planned Parenthood of Joplin.  In both attempts, Stout threw items containing an accelerant onto the roof of the Planned Parenthood facility and then ignited material attached to the accelerant.  Surveillance video captured his consecutive attempts to set the fires and Stout was apprehended soon after those attempts.  Stout admitted to investigators that he was responsible for both Planned Parenthood arson attempts and for the mosque arson, and that he had committed the mosque arson using the same kind of incendiary device as in the Planned Parenthood arson attempts.  Stout further admitted that he targeted Planned Parenthood because they provide reproductive health care services ...
So, playing the Devil's Advocate, if we treat this the same way as other extremist violence with links/hints of religious involvement, one has to wonder what his influences were - especially since hometown media say he identifies as "conservative Christian".  Did he own any religious literature?  Who was he hanging around with?  Did his church do anything about this if they knew?  Have anti-Muslim or anti-abortion groups spoken out against such violence?  Or is this just a case of someone mentally ill?
 
The big difference is that you don’t have Vatican telling to kill and suppress the Muslims, nor does the Vatican or other religious authorities issue death threats for drawing cartoons of Christ.
 
Colin P said:
The big difference is that you don’t have Vatican telling to kill and suppress the Muslims, nor does the Vatican or other religious authorities issue death threats for drawing cartoons of Christ.
You're right, but I haven't read anything saying he's Roman Catholic (which has a lot more centralized and agreed-to locus of control than other religions), so at that level, the Pope has nothing to uncondone here.  But there have been examples of clergy advocating extreme measures in the case of people doing abortions

That said, and I stand to be educated, but I'm guessing the Christian religions in the U.S. have a spectrum of "how much head office/head dude-dudette dictates what happens in the pews." 
 
Meanwhile, overseas ...
A British neo-Nazi movement is to become the first far-right group to be banned under terrorism laws in the UK.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said National Action was "a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation".

An order laid in Parliament to proscribe the group - making it a criminal offence to join or support it - is due to come into effect on Friday.

It will be the first time a group engaged in extreme right-wing activities has been proscribed.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the home secretary can proscribe an organisation if it is believed to be "concerned in terrorism".

The growing problem of far-right radicalisation

National Action describes itself as a "National Socialist youth organisation" and says its movement is aimed at the "broken right-wing".

Ms Rudd said the group had "no place" in Britain.

She said: "National Action is a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology, and I will not stand for it."

Proscription makes it a criminal offence to belong to the organisation, arrange meetings in support of the group or wear clothing or carry articles in public which arouse reasonable suspicion.

Penalties for proscription offences can be a maximum of 10 years in prison and an unlimited fine.

There are currently 70 international organisations that are proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 - the majority of which are Islamist groups. A further 14 organisations in Northern Ireland were proscribed under previous legislation ...
More on the group here (usual Wikipedia caveats apply).
 
Guilty (highlights mine) ...
The federal jury1 of 10 women and two men who found Dylann Roof guilty of federal hate crimes Thursday in the killings of nine African-Americans at a historic Charleston church now must wait more than two weeks for the trial’s next phase.

Jurors on Jan. 3 will begin to hear evidence about whether to give the death penalty or life without parole to the 22-year-old self-avowed white supremacist from Columbia.

Jurors took two hours Thursday to find him guilty. Evidence in the case had been overwhelming, including a video confession.

Federal Judge Richard Gergel told jurors that during the holiday recess, they may not look at any news accounts of one of the most sensational South Carolina trials in decades. Nor can they discuss the case with anyone — including other jurors.

The killings shook South Carolina and the nation because they happened in a church, because Roof’s white supremacist motivations were so blatant and because survivors were so quick to express forgiveness.

“These nine people exemplified a goodness that was greater than this message of hate,” prosecutor Nathan Williams told jurors earlier in closing arguments, urging them to find Roof guilty.

After the verdict, Gergel put Roof under oath and asked him one more time if he wants to represent himself in the death penalty phase. Roof said “yes.” His legal team of top defense lawyers will be classified as “stand-by” and be able only to offer him advice.

Gergel warned Roof, a ninth-grade dropout with a GED, that he should not try to handle such a task. But Roof was firm. Gergel told him he had until Jan. 3 to change his mind ...
1 -- These are the federal charges he's been found guilty of - there could be more:
... The jury will return Jan. 3 to decide whether to impose death, or sentence Roof to life imprisonment.

After that, Roof is scheduled to be tried on murder charges in state court, where he also faces the prospect of a death sentence ...
More on this guy here (usual Wikipedia GIGO caveats apply).
 
"The federal jury..."

jollyjacktar said:
Death is what he deserves.

Could take a while,

On federal cases, "As of 2015 only three federal death row prisoners had been executed since 1988."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/15/us/federal-sentences-death-row/

tomahawk6 said:
He still must face State charges which carry the death penalty.

Checked out South Carolina's averages. They certainly kept "Old Sparky's" seat filled in the first half of the 20th Century.  :)
http://www.doc.sc.gov/pubweb/news/deathrow.jsp#execution



 
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