" According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, our country has been experiencing an “explosive growth in extremist-group activism across the United States” in recent years. The law center reported that so-called “patriot groups”—right-wing outfits steeped in anti-government conspiracy theories—grew in number from 149 in 2008 to 512 in 2009—an astonishing 244 percent increase that apparently reflected a backlash against the election of America’s first African American president. "

― Arsalan Iftikhar , Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms