In 2015, the community of Islamberg discovered that a Tennessee minister was plotting the deadliest attack on US soil since 9/11 against their village. Why have Americans heard nothing about him, and why has the safety of this community been ignored?
On 10 April 2015, the FBI quietly arrested Robert Doggart, a white, 63-year-old Christian minister, after they discovered he was plotting an attack against Islamberg, a small African American Muslim community in upstate New York. Inspired by claims on Fox News that the community was a terrorist training camp, Doggart discussed firebombing a mosque and a school in the village, and using assault rifles and a machete to murder the residents.
No terrorism charges were brought against Doggart. No national news outlets covered his arrest, and one month after he was taken into custody, a judge released him on bail. As Doggart’s case went before an all-white jury, White Fright examined the US’s inconsistent system of national security, the media’s role in exacerbating terrorist threats, and the failure to protect vulnerable communities from racist attacks.
Read more on this story – Terror attacks by Muslims receive 357% more press attention, study finds
Key credits
Director, producer and editor: David Felix Sutcliffe
Producer: Nehad Khader
Executive producers for the Guardian: Charlie Phillips and Lindsay Poulton
Commissioned by the Guardian and Bertha Foundation
Length – 29 mins
Source: The Guardian
Categories: America, Americas, Arab World, Islam, United States, USA