Therefore, Muslims are seen as terrorists even when performing acts utterly disconnected from that enterprise, while whites—like Roof and Tarrant—are overwhelmingly cast as actors behaving outside the accepted and understood boundaries of whiteness. Again, white culprits of terror are routinely called “lone wolves,” that is, one-off actors whose race exempts them from the very acts of terrorism members of their ideological flock commit inside the hallowed halls of Charleston churches, Pittsburgh synagogues, and Christchurch mosques.

XREF: Connects to broader literature on racialized framing of crime and terrorism in media and law enforcement. SEED: Potential essay angle: how the 'lone wolf' label functions as a racial exemption that decontextualizes white supremacist violence.

Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamopho…, loc. 940