April 22, 2024
You may be shocked to hear this, but Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action are not terrorist organizations and, in fact, condemn breaking the law in pursuit of social justice. Once the surprised gasps subside, the displaced monocles return to eyes, and the dropped jaws come back to their upright positions, it might be time to get angry.
Earlier this year, Students for Life of America was notified of a terrorism slur at a website with the pretentious title – the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism—better known as START— “a university-based research and education center comprised of an international network of scholars committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and around the world.” START included Students for Life of America in shocking company on an unalphabetized list titled: Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States – PIRUS (Keshif), in which “offenders” under Group or Movement Affiliation include the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Ku Klux Klan, Hamas, and Nation of Islam, to name of few.
Fox News caught wind of our troubles, reporting: “A pro-life group is considering taking legal action after its members were placed on a database that tracks extremists within the U.S.
Students for Life of America, or “SFLA,” was named in a University of Maryland project called the “Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States” or “PIRUS,” The College Fix first reported. The database tracks “over 3,500 violent and non-violent extremists who adhere to far-right, far-left, Islamist, or single-issue ideologies in the United States covering 1948-2022,” according to its website.”
READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON FOX NEWS: Pro-life group weighing legal action after being placed on extremist database alongside ‘Hamas, KKK’
The College Fix has been covering this for a while and talked with national security expert Elizabeth Neumann, asking her if START’s labeling was appropriate. Her response? “No.”
In that story, Neumann said, “They made an error, and they should correct it … She told The Fix that START’s portrayal of pro-lifers does not resemble how the DHS typically views ‘radicalization’ in any political camp.”
Agreeing in that story was “A law professor who helped shape counterterrorism policy at the DOJ … ‘Researchers of course can create and apply any definition of ‘terrorism’ that they like,’ former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo said in an email. ‘But if they want to be taken seriously, they should use something like the U.S. government’s definition,” according to Yoo, who served in his role from 2001 to 2003.
“For domestic terrorism, the FBI says it is ‘Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature,’” noted Yoo.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the FBI consulted their own definition. Just last year we reported on how the FBI has gone after Catholic groups.
We’re grateful this particular and shameful chapter is concluded for now, but we know it’s not the end of the story, as no assurance has been made or apologies offered.
But we must ask ourselves if viewpoint discrimination is behind this kind of targeting. After all, what’s more radical to the Biden Administration than peaceful pro-life Americans who love both mother and child, born and preborn?
READ OUR NEWS RELEASE: Students for Life of America Calls for Assurances That Terrorism Accusations Propped up with Government Funding to the University of Maryland’s START project Will Truly Cease & Desist