A Google search leads to that statistic coming from a Quartz report cited by the SPLC.
SPLC-Touted Terrorism Study Casts a Wide Net to Downplay Islamic Extremism
Looking to "blow off steam," a
pair of teenagers broke into the Ohio Chapel United Methodist Church near Columbus, Ind. last year to steal propane tanks. The vandals turned crosses upside down, smashed windows, and even torched a pew stored in the basement.
Non-lethal incidents like church vandalism are a far cry from the bloodshed that occurred in the shadow of the rebuilt World Trade Center on
Oct. 31, 2017, when ISIS-aligned Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov
drove a rented pickup truck down a crowded bicycle path, killing eight people and wounding 12. Yet, a
Quartz reportpublished Sept. 11 reviewing terrorist attacks in 2017 compares numerous low-level acts of vandalism to less frequent — but far more lethal — jihadist violence, to argue that most terrorist acts in the United States are motivated by right-wing extremism.
In another case included as a terrorist attack, a "small-caliber bullet" consistent with a
pellet gun or air riflewas used to
shoot out the windows of the
Lexington-Herald Leader in Kentucky. The rooms targeted were empty at the time of the shooting, and nobody was hurt. Law enforcement investigated the incident as "criminal mischief," and GTD researchers
expressed doubt that it qualified as terrorism since "it is unclear whether the building was specifically or randomly targeted."
Quartz's conclusions are heavily skewed by arson-related incidents, which comprise 37 percent of the total terrorism cases. Half of all the attacks attributed to "anti-Muslim extremists," and half of the "anti-LGBT" incidents it includes involved fires. Thirteen of these arsons remain unsolved.
For instance, two months after a fire destroyed the Islamic Center of Lake Travis, Texas, Fire Marshal Tony Callaway admitted that investigators
may never know what caused the blaze. Although Callaway pointed to local trash fires as a potential cause, the
incident was still reported as coming from "anti-Muslim extremists.
In another example, there is no evidence proving that an arson attack on a
Puerto Rican gay bar was motivated by homophobia or right-wing extremism. After masked assailants threw a Molotov cocktail into the Circo bar in San Juan a year ago, causing minor damage, local LGBT activist Pedro Julio Serrano
identified homophobia as the "probable" cause. Authorities never identified a suspect or motive, however, and
a source told the
Gay Times that "the attack could have come from a rival gay club that would have wanted to stop Circo Bar from opening" following renovations. Even the GTD isn't sure that this was a terrorist attack, because the incident may not have been "aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal."
Again,
Quartz counted this arson that left no casualties equally to the ISIS-inspired Bangladeshi man who strapped a
crude bomb to his body and detonated it inside a commuter tunnel at Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal, wounding himself and three others.
Upset over U.S. military strikes on ISIS positions and the Israeli "incursion into Gaza," Akayed Ullah timed his attack to maximize casualties. Fortunately, his suicide vest
misfired and detonated prematurely, sparing numerous casualties.
It's certainly possible that the Circo bar was targeted by someone who hates gay people. But that remains unknown. In nearly a quarter of the cases in the GTD between 2010 and 2016, the perpetrator's identity is
unknown. The 2017 data has mystery assailants in 29 percent of the cases, making conclusions about motive uncertain.
The same is true for the lone anti-Semitic attack featured in the database. It involved an unidentified man who set fire to an empty bus decorated with colorful artwork and Jewish iconography. The crime took place in New York's Crown Heights area, which has a history of black and Hispanic anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, Quartz counts this as a right-wing attack.
Tunisian national Abor Ftouhi's stabbing attack of a Michigan police officer may be the most dubious in the Quartz report. Ftouhi shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he stabbed the officer in the neck. He "exclaimed something similar to, 'you have killed people in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die,'" said a second law enforcement officer who witnessed the attack. Despite these statements, Quartz characterizes this incident as an anti-government/right wing attack.
An unidentified person (so no motive) shoots the windows out of a unoccupied building of a Kentucky Newspaper and Quartz counts this as right wing extremism in comparison to the man who ran down people in a pickup truck in the name of ISIS. Your study is horribly flawed.
