AVOIDING calling the Charleston church massacre an act of terrorism, FBI director James Comey said: “Terrorism is an act of violence … to try to influence a public body or citizenry, so it’s more of a political act … based on what I know so far I don’t see it as a political act.”

But he’s wrong; what Dylan Storm Roof did was very political and is part of a larger political narrative that not only has deep roots in American history, but is enabled by a whole ensemble of overt and covert sympathisers, denialists and obscurantists.

According to a survivor of the massacre, Roof’s words before he began shooting were: “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country and you have to go.” Check out any of the numerous and growing ‘white nationalist’ forums on the internet and you will find this to be a recurring theme. The barbarians (ethnic and religious minorities for the most part) are out-breeding us, tainting our blood, sexually assaulting our women and attacking our religion. Switch a few words and themes and it is eerily similar to the talking points used by Islamist militants.

What Dylan Storm Roof did is part of a larger political narrative.

It’s also an international phenomenon. Roof himself proudly wore the flags of Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, and the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik cited American Islamophobe Robert Spencer along with a host of foreign writers and bloggers. Stormfront, “the first major hate site on the internet” gets half its traffic from outside the US, and has several sub forums in other languages. Why not? After all race, much like religion, knows no borders.

Fear and anger are also dominant themes in ‘white power’ music, apparently the neo-Nazi equivalent of a takfiri sermon. As the band Angry Aryans puts it: They multiply like rats/ sell our kids their dope/They terrorise our country/ and our peoples hope.

Just music? Well it was certainly popular with both Dylan Storm Roof and Wade Michael Page, who killed six worshippers at a Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin in 2012 and just happened to play the guitar and sing for such bands.

Online or onstage the message is that the white race is in danger from a multifaceted assault and must be saved by any means necessary.

What are those means? For some it is segregation and a ban on immigration, others call for whites to have more children, who must then be made ‘racially aware’. For others, the only solution is a final one; the solution Dylan chose because he had ‘no choice’. His race was at stake; this was bigger than him; it wasn’t about losing his love interest to a black man. So to save the white race, there must be a Racial Holy War, or Rahowa as it is known in those circles. Once this happens, the white race will ‘awaken’ and have no choice but to close ranks. Riots in Ferguson? Rahowa. Calls for gun curbs? Rahowa. Same-sex marriage legalised? Rahowa, Rahowa, Rahowa.

Providing philosophical backing to this are the ‘14 words’ of White Supremacist David Lane. They are: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children.”

Just words? Well in 2008 Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman were arrested for allegedly planning to execute 88 African-Americans, and behead another 14 as a ‘tribute’ to these 14 words. Why 88? Because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet and thus 88 stands for HH, or Heil Hitler. No jokes.

The Ku Klux Klan has its own even more comical code language. The coded Klan greeting, for example, is ‘Ayak’ (Are You A Klansman?) to which the desired response is ‘Akai’, (A Klansman Am I). It sounds stupid (and it is) until you realise it is deadly serious. And while the Klan’s glory days are in the past, recently a deputy police chief and a police officer in Florida were found to have Klan ties by the FBI. One resigned while the other was dismissed. Incidentally, there is no requirement in the US for aspiring police officers to be screened for hate group membership. Why would there be when so few acknowledge that the problem even exists?

But exist it does; the New America Foundation recently released a report claiming twice as many people have died in attacks by right-wing groups in America than by Muslim extremists since 9/11.

Why does it go so unnoticed? Because there is an enabling and obfuscating industry aimed at preventing the mention of white and terror in the same sentence.

Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly says only ‘anti-American haters’ think there is an epidemic of racism. The governor of South Carolina said “we’ll never understand what motivates” such people, presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham, who dismissed Dylan as a “whacked out kid” also labelled the shooting “Middle East hate”. Oh, it’s hate no doubt, but it’s as American as mom, the flag and apple pie.

The writer is a member of staff.

Twitter: @ZarrarKhuhro

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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