On April 10, a former congressional candidate from Tennessee was arrested for plotting to kill Muslims and destroy a mosque. In court this week, 63-year-old Robert R. Doggart admitted to plotting to kill residents in Islamberg, a Muslim area in the state of New York.
The fact that the case has not drawn much attention from the media has left groups representing American Muslims frustrated. “If a Muslim had planned to carry out such a religiously-motivated deadly attack, he would certainly have been labeled a terrorist and charged accordingly,” National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Ibrahim Hooper said in a press release earlier this week. “We ask the Obama administration to rescind the plea agreement, which — as it stands — could see this individual free in the community.”
Doggart coordinated the attack with members of a right-wing militia named by the plea agreement as OAF. Doggart pleaded guilty to one count of Interstate Communication of Threats In violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 875(c). Another count of solicitation to commit a civil rights violation was dropped.
Doggart said in a phone conversation: “We will burn down their buildings (and) if anyone attempts to, uh, harm us in any way, our stand gunner will take them down from 350 yards away. The standoff gunner would be me.”
“We’re gonna be carrying an M4 with 500 rounds of ammunition, light armour piercing, a pistol with three extra magazines, and a machete.”
“And if it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds.”
Doggart ran for the House of Representatives last year and gained around 9,000 votes. Despite the threats, Doggars is currently out on bail and awaiting sentencing. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Muhammad Matthew Gardner, a spokesman for The Muslims of America (TMOA), told Sky News: “Doggart is an example of the results of unchecked and rampant Islamophobia which has spread lies for years about our peaceful community.
“All would agree, if a Muslim did this, the perpetrator would be immediately identified as a terrorist then prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”