What happened on Capitol Hill was white supremacist terror

By Mohammed Khaku

Make no mistake these armed Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol are violent rebels.

These white supremacists embrace the same politics of Hitler’s Germany. Our lawmakers have allowed them to carry weapons to our government buildings and defended their possession of military style weapons as some kind of Constitutional right.

The violent pro-Trump rioters who broke the glass and stormed the US Capitol buildings during the certification process are nothing more than hooligans.

International leaders from around the globe expressed shock and condemned the unprecedented scenes on Capitol Hill as a pro-Trump riot breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

China mocking by saying “What a beautiful Sight”, Russians rejoicing by saying “US was getting what it deserves as a result of its foreign policy and Islamic Republic Iran putting diplomatically as “fragility of Western democracy” and Zimbabwe’s president said “Yesterday´s events showed that the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy. These sanctions must end”.

Newspaper headlines around the world were most apt. ‘The target was the Capitol, not the Twin Towers, but this was terrorism”, “Trump sets fire to Washington”, ‘The US has experienced its first tentative violent coup d’état”, “Day of shame for American democracy”, “The president, his lies, and a spineless Republican party are politically responsible”, “Violence engulfs Capitol as Trump supporters run riot”, “US Capitol secured after stormed by pro-Trump protesters”, ‘Trump sets fire to Washington”, “Democracy under siege”, and “The Coup of Madness”. While the op-ed columns by editors laid the blame on Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting and encouraging the violence.

Wednesday’s ordinary procedure of Congress certifying a new president resulted in wild, out-of-control protesters clashing with the security and taking control of the building, shouting, and waving Trump and American flags as they marched through the hallways and offices of the Congress. When Black and brown individuals go out and peacefully protest, we’re called rioters. What a hypocrisy.

World leaders and Civil rights activists are outraged over Wednesday’s violent attack on Capitol Hill — noting the stark difference between how the mostly white men who stormed government buildings were treated compared to how communities of color protesting police brutality were violently handled last year.

The storming of the Capitol building in Washington brought back painful memories for many of the April 2020 protests, when militias with guns opposed to Michigan’s governor’s guidelines on coronavirus entered the Michigan Capitol building with zero consequence. The did so while BLM protesters were treated with tear gas, rubber bullets, attacked dogs, and charged with a felony. This is white privilege and terrorism here in the United States of America.

Donald Trump first unleashed this far-right extremism on the campaign trail five years ago. Trump is responsible for every act of violence committed and should face impeachment. He should be charged with manslaughter for his horrendous handling of the pandemic and inciting terror.

The events at the Capitol were disappointing, but not surprising because Muslims and Jews have to deal with the white supremacy on a daily basis.