Washington, February 21: A major US Muslim group decried officials’ “double standard” Friday in refusing to label a Texas suicide plane crash terrorism, saying they would not have hesitated to do so if the pilot was a Muslim.
Software engineer Joseph Stack flew his single-engine plane into an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office building in Austin, Texas on Thursday, apparently killing himself and at least one federal government employee, as well as injuring 13 others.
The attack left thick black smoke pouring from the badly damaged seven-story building, stirring bitter memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“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,” said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“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.”
Hours after the attack, Awad labeled it an “act of terror.”
US officials called it a deliberate assault on a US government institution, stressing there were no apparent connections to international terrorism, although White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did not rule out that it could still be considered an act of domestic terrorism.
Austin police chief Art Acevedo said the incident seemed to be “an intentional act by a sole individual.”
Stack, 53, appeared to be motivated by deep-seated anger against the federal government and US tax authorities, according to a rambling suicide note published online and signed “Joe Stack.”
In it, he namely claimed that “violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.” Stack blamed the government for an unfair tax system that he said had ruined his life.
The White House has said it would wait until an investigation into the crash is completed before deciding whether to call it an act of terror, but Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat, said the incident was a “cowardly act of domestic terrorism.”
Republican Representative Michael McCaul of Austin, when asked near the crash site if he thought Stack committed a terrorist attack, said “it sounds like it to me.”
—Agencies