The shooting at a Sikh Temple in the Wisconsin town of Oak Creek last Sunday revealed an ugly side to America\u2019s pluralistic society. In a country of immigrants, there are still people who hate or fear those they see as \u201coutsiders,\u201d\u009d and when those people have access to semi-automatic weapons, they can put their fear and hatred into action.<\/p>\n
The shooter, a former US Army soldier named Wade Michael Page, was a white supremacist, and before he was gunned down by a police officer, Page managed to kill six of the temple\u2019s worshipers and to wound another police officer.<\/p>\n
The incident is being treated as a domestic terror incident, with Page\u2019s embrace of the \u201cracial holy war\u201d\u009d rhetoric of the far right making this more than just another case of American mass murder. But the shock of the event also hit many Americans at another level. Here, the terrorist was white, and a former US soldier. His victims were Asian. The terrorist\u2019s ideology, white supremacy, was every bit as hateful and destructive as the religious holy war (jihad) of the men who hijacked the planes on Sept. 11….<\/p>\n