Faith and Civil Rights Groups Ask for FBI Meeting on White Nationalism

(RNS) — A coalition of faith groups and civil rights organizations is asking to meet with the director of the FBI, arguing that after a string of attacks on houses of worship in recent years, the agency should focus on the threat of white nationalism.

The coalition, which includes Muslim Advocates, the Union for Reform Judaism, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Sikh Coalition, sent a letter March 19 to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting a meeting on the topic.

“We, the undersigned national civil rights and faith-based leaders, write to express our deep concern regarding recent attacks against our houses of worship and communities,” they wrote. “We request an urgent meeting with you to discuss the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in addressing the threat to public safety and our communities by white nationalist violence.”

The authors referenced several mass shootings recently perpetrated in houses of worship. The suspects in those attacks — or those convicted in the attacks — are believed to have either espoused or been associated with white nationalist ideology. These attacks include the 2012 shooting at a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wis., that left six dead; the 2015 shooting deaths of nine black worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.; the 2018…