When a Muslim is involved in any act of violence — however minor, however ambiguous — it becomes wall-to-wall media coverage and an indictment of an entire faith and its 1.8 billion adherents worldwide. But when the facts are examined honestly, with the rigor that genuine guidance and truth-seeking demand, a starkly different picture emerges. In a landmark episode of The Deen Show, Professor Musa — cognitive sociologist and managing editor of the Southwest Initiative for the Study of Middle East Conflicts (SISME) at the University of Arizona — dismantles, fact by fact, the dominant narrative that Islam and Muslims represent America’s primary security threat, exposing systemic double standards that cut to the heart of justice, fairness, and the very values America claims to uphold.
A Tale of Two Shooters: The Systematic Double Standard in How Violence Gets Labeled
The disparity in how American institutions and media treat violence depending on the perpetrator’s background is not subtle — it is deliberate and documented. When Dylan Roof massacred nine Black churchgoers in Charleston in a racially motivated attack, the FBI announced it would not classify the crime as terrorism despite it meeting the bureau’s own definition of politically motivated violence. Days later, the Chattanooga shooting — carried out by a Muslim — was designated terrorism before any investigation concluded. The pattern extends further: white perpetrators are reflexively described as “mentally ill,” depressed, bipolar, or disturbed by a recent divorce; for Muslim perpetrators, Professor Musa notes, mental illness is simply never on the table. “In virtue of being a Muslim, you can’t be mentally ill — you’re a cold, calculating criminal mastermind. Whereas if you’re a white person who commits a terrorist act, you’re definitely crazy.” Nowhere is this double standard more stunning than in the case of Robert Doggart — a Christian minister and failed congressional candidate who recruited co-conspirators, acquired real weapons, and plotted to “utterly destroy” a Muslim suburb in upstate New York, including bombing a mosque and school before conducting a shooting rampage. His sentence: home detention and a $30,000 fine. No life imprisonment. No national outrage. No sustained media coverage. Compare this to Muslim individuals ensnared in FBI sting operations — frequently involving FBI-supplied fake weapons and FBI-suggested plots — who routinely receive life sentences for threats that posed no actual imminent danger to anyone.
“The starting premise when an Arab or a Muslim commits a crime is that it’s terrorism, and the starting premise when a white person commits a crime is that it’s not terrorism.” — Professor Musa, University of Arizona
What the Data Actually Shows: Right-Wing Extremism, Cartel Violence, and the Statistical Reality of Terror
When emotional rhetoric is stripped away and replaced with verified facts — a foundational principle in Islam’s emphasis on knowledge, reflection, and honest inquiry — the numbers tell a sobering story that mainstream media consistently suppresses. Professor Musa laid out the statistical reality plainly: since 9/11, approximately 80 people have been killed by all forms of terrorism combined — Muslim and non-Muslim — over more than fifteen years. In that same period, police killed over 600 Americans in just the first half of a single year. Tens of thousands die by suicide annually. More than a million die from medical malpractice and preventable disease each year. Statistically, you are more likely to be killed by your own furniture than by a Muslim extremist. On the domestic terrorism front, right-wing extremist networks in America number in the hundreds of thousands — ISIS sympathizers number in the mere thousands — yet the government deploys hundreds of analysts tracking overseas jihadist networks against only dozens tracking homegrown, non-Islamic extremist threats. Meanwhile, Mexican drug cartels operating immediately across the US border have killed more Americans in a handful of years than the entirety of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns combined with all domestic terrorism since 9/11. Beheadings, mass killings, the cannibalization of Americans — none of it generates a fraction of the breathless 24-hour coverage triggered by anything carrying the word “Islam.” The right-wing extremists responsible for the majority of domestic terror acts in the United States are, astonishingly, the same ideologues loudest in stoking anti-Muslim hysteria — a deflection that serves their agenda while shielding them from scrutiny.
- Since 9/11, all terrorism combined has killed approximately 80 people in the US over 15+ years — far fewer than furniture accidents, lightning strikes, or secondhand smoke
- Right-wing extremists in America number in the hundreds of thousands; domestic ISIS sympathizers number in the mere thousands
- Mexican drug cartels have killed more Americans than all terrorism since 9/11 combined — with virtually no sustained media coverage
- Robert Doggart plotted the massacre of an entire Muslim community, recruited co-conspirators, and acquired weapons — and received home detention and a fine, not prison
- Many Muslims sentenced to life in terrorism cases were entrapped by the FBI, which suggested the plot, supplied fake weapons, and faced no real imminent threat
- The so-called non-Muslim “experts on Islam” presented by cable media share more ideological common ground with fringe extremists than with mainstream Muslim scholarship
- Fox News once hosted a known ISIS propagandist — presenting him as a “Muslim cleric” — to manufacture the image that his extremist views represent ordinary Muslim belief
“Muslim terrorism is not even a majority of the very small problem that terrorism is to begin with.” — Professor Musa, University of Arizona
Finding Truth and Building Peace: A Call to Sincere Americans
At its very core, Islam is a faith of salaam — peace with one’s Creator, peace within oneself, and peace with all of humanity. The distorted portrait of Muslims as a monolithic threat is supported by neither data nor the lived reality of millions of Muslim Americans who are neighbors, doctors, teachers, coaches, and contributors to the shared fabric of this nation. Professor Musa’s most practical advice for sincere Americans seeking clarity through the noise is straightforward: stop listening exclusively to non-Muslim “experts” who profit from manufacturing fear, and start engaging with actual Muslims — diverse, nuanced, deeply committed to justice and coexistence. The KKK never truly disappeared; it exchanged white robes for business suits and found its way into broadcast studios, think tanks, and political campaigns, channeling the same ideology of supremacy through a more polished vocabulary. Confronting it requires courageous, broad-based voices — not only from Muslim communities, but from fair-minded people of every background who refuse to let hatred be normalized or Islamophobia be monetized. For those who carry the light of faith and seek to live by its true purpose — grounded in spiritual guidance, moral clarity, and compassion — the call is unchanged: be part of the solution, not the problem. Open a conversation with your Muslim neighbors. Seek knowledge before accepting fear. And remember that in a time of manufactured division, one act of genuine human connection carries more weight than a thousand hours of cable news.
