US Muslim group calls IRS plane attack terrorism

A software engineer, piloting the small plane in a suicide attack on the Internal Revenue Service, crashed into the office building on Thursday February 18, 2010.
A major US Muslim group has decried officials’ “double standard” in refusing to label Texas suicide plane crash as an act of terrorism.

“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.

“Terrorism is terrorism, regardless of the faith, race or ethnicity of the perpetrator or the victims,” said Awad, adding in a statement that “if a Muslim had carried out the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) attack, it would have surely been labeled an act of terrorism.”

“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.”

Software engineer Joseph Stack flew his single-engine plane into an IRS office building in Austin, Texas on Thursday, apparently killing himself and at least one federal government employee, while injuring 13 others.

In the hours that followed the crash, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters that the incident looked to be “a criminal act by a lone individual.” However, 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.