( CNN ) -- Within the last month , our country has witnessed two senseless , high-profile acts of criminal violence that would have been labeled terrorism if brown-skinned Arab Muslim men with foreign-sounding names had committed them . Because two white men committed these acts of violence , however , our political and media chattering class never used the word `` terrorism '' in its discussions . Most recently , John Patrick Bedell , a 36-year-old man from California , walked up to two security guards outside the Pentagon Metro station in suburban Washington and started shooting . He was then shot and killed . According to The Christian Science Monitor , Bedell appeared `` to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent anti-government feelings '' and also battled mental illness before his shooting rampage . A few weeks ago , on February 18 , another white anti-government extremist named Joseph Stack flew his small airplane into an Internal Revenue Service building in Austin , Texas , killing two people and injuring 13 others . According to media reports , Stack had left behind a disjointed suicide letter in which he expressed his hatred of our American government and outlined grievances with the IRS , chillingly stating that `` violence not only is the answer ; it is the only answer . '' Both the Pentagon Metro and IRS attacks come at a time of `` explosive growth in [ domestic ] extremist-group activism across the United States , '' according to the Southern Poverty Law Center . A recently released law center report showed so-called patriot groups -- steeped in anti-government conspiracy theories -- grew from 149 in 2008 to 512 in 2009 -- a 244 percent increase that the Southern Poverty Law Center report judged to be an `` astonishing '' rise in the one-year period since President Obama took the oath of office . The number of these groups that are domestic extremist paramilitary militias grew from 42 in 2008 to 127 in 2009 , the report said . Even so , for any reasonable observer who is still skeptical about labeling the recent Pentagon area shooting and IRS attack terrorism , keep one thing in mind : . Let us imagine that these Pentagon and IRS attacks had been committed by an olive-skinned Arab Muslim man named Ali Muhammad . Our national media and political commentators would have wasted little time in calling both of these acts terrorism , and some might have also called for the closings of other IRS and federal government office buildings around the country as a necessary counter-terrorism safety precaution . Instead , shortly after the IRS plane attack , some prominent media commentators immediately asked why people -- especially conservatives on the right -- were not calling the IRS attacker a terrorist . `` If this had been done by a brownish-looking Muslim guy whose suicide note paralleled Islamist political themes , '' wrote media commentator Matthew Yglesias , then right-wingers would `` demand that anyone who refused to label the attack 'terrorism ' be put up on treason charges . '' In a recent piece , Robert Wright , of the New America Foundation , wrote : `` In common usage , a 'terrorist ' is someone who attacks in the name of a political cause and aims to spread terror -- to foster fear that such attacks will be repeated until grievances are addressed . '' Following suit , the IRS attacker 's suicide manifesto before his aerial kamikaze attack reads in part : `` I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after ... I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be whitewashed and ignored '' -- at which point , God willing , -- `` the American zombies wake up and revolt . '' If this same above-mentioned suicide letter had been instead written by an Arab Muslim man named Ali Muhammad right before crashing his airplane into an IRS building , most of the right-wing blogosphere would instantaneously erupt with screaming headlines of another act of Muslim terrorism . Because Theodore Kaczynski , the Unabomber ; Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh ; Atlanta , Georgia , Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph ; the Pentagon shooter and IRS attacker were all white men motivated by their respective ideologies , surprisingly , the term `` terrorism '' has never seemed to stick to any of them . To prove my point even further , the recently indicted American woman Colleen LaRose , who called herself `` Jihad Jane , '' can rightfully be termed a wanna-be terrorist . But why does this not apply to other white extremists ? If our nation is truly conducting a `` war on terror '' and not a `` war on Islam , '' it is our duty as Americans of all colors , political persuasions and nationalities to condemn and distance ourselves from all acts of terrorism , regardless of the race or religion of those who commit violent acts in the name of extreme ideology . Simply put , terrorism is terrorism , whether it is committed by a white , black or brown person anywhere in the world . If we as a nation fail to adequately condemn all acts of terrorism equally , the only clear message that we will be sending to the rest of the world is that the word `` terrorist '' applies only to those with olive skin and foreign-sounding last names . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Arsalan Iftikhar .
Arsalan Iftikhar : Imagine if recent violent acts had been committed by Arab Muslim men . White man Joseph Stack flew plane into IRS building ; another shot Pentagon guards , he writes . Iftikhar : Outcry would ensue if Muslim left note calling violence `` the only answer , '' as Stack did . Terrorism is terrorism , whether it is committed by a white , black or brown person , he says .