The complaint was aired just days after the February 18 suicide attack on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office in Austin, Texas, in which an American software engineer, Joseph Stack, angry with the IRS, flew his plane into the federal building.
The attack set fire to the building, causing scores of workers to flee. At least 13 people were injured and one IRS employee was killed. Stack also died.
Investigators found a lengthy anti-government screed that Stack apparently posted on the web earlier in the day as an explanation for what he was about to do. In it, Stack cited run-ins he had with the IRS. “I have had all I can stand,” he wrote in the letter, adding: “I choose not to keep looking over my shoulder at ‘big brother’ while he strips my carcass.”
CAIR called the politically-motivated airborne suicide attack an act of “terror,” while it said many media outlets, law enforcement agencies and government officials were reluctant to use the term.
In a statement read February 22, CAIR Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili said, “American law defines ‘terrorism’ as ‘premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets’ or as ‘the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.’
“When an act that fits these definitions is carried out by a Muslim individual or group, there is and should be no hesitation in labeling that act ‘terrorism.’ Regrettably, when an act fitting the legal definitions of terrorism is carried out by someone who is not Muslim, there seems to be a general reluctance on the part of commentators, public officials and law enforcement agencies to use the term.”
Before the meeting, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad, said, “The position of many individuals and institutions seems to be that no act of violence can be labeled ‘terrorism’ unless it is carried out by a Muslim. The attack on the IRS office in Texas perfectly fits the legal definition of terrorism, yet it is not being labeled as such. This apparent double standard only serves to render the term meaningless.”
However, it wasn’t so obvious that people were making such a distinction. The House of Representatives on March 3 passed a resolution memorializing the IRS staffer killed that day and describing the incident as a “terror attack.”
A computer search of news stories found 1,371 containing the words “IRS” and “Austin.” Of those, 476 or just over one-third also contained the word “terror” or “terrorist.”
And the 1990’s bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by a former U.S. Army soldier is uniformly described by Americans as a terror attack.