Europol releases an annual study of terrorism; the results do not support claims that "(nearly) all Muslims are terrorists"
Islamophobes have been popularizing the claim that “not all Muslims are terrorists, but (nearly) all terrorists are Muslims.” Despite this idea becoming axiomatic in some circles, it is quite simply not factual. In my previous article entitled “All Terrorists are Muslims…Except the 94% that Aren’t”, I used official FBI records to show that only 6% of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by Islamic extremists. The remaining 94% were from other groups (42% from Latinos, 24% from extreme left wing groups, 7% from extremist Jews, 5% from communists, and 16% from all other groups).
But what about across the pond? The data gathered by Europol strengthens my argument even further. (hat tip: Koppe) Europol publishes an annual report entitled EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report. On their official website, you can access the reports from 2007, 2008, and 2009. (If anyone can find the reports from earlier than that, please let me know so we can include those as well.)
The results are stark, and prove decisively that not all terrorists are Muslims. In fact, a whopping 99.6% of terrorist attacks in Europe were by non-Muslim groups; a good 84.8% of attacks were from separatist groups completely unrelated to Islam. Leftist groups accounted for over sixteen times as much terrorism as radical Islamic groups. Only a measly 0.4% of terrorist attacks from 2007 to 2009 could be attributed to extremist Muslims.
Here are the official tables provided in the reports…
For 2006:
For 2007:
For 2008:
(According to the report, there was 1 “Islamist attack” in the UK in 2008, which was omitted in the table above. It has been included in the bar graph below.)
Just glancing at those tables is enough to know how absurd it is to claim that “all terrorists are Muslims.” That statement is nowhere near the truth. If we compile the data, it comes out to this:
On p.7, the 2009 Europol report concludes:
Islamist terrorism is still perceived as being the biggest threat worldwide, despite the fact that the EU only faced one Islamist terrorist attack in 2008. This bomb attack took place in the UK…Separatist terrorism remains the terrorism area which affects the EU most. This includes Basque separatist terrorism in Spain and France, and Corsican terrorism in France…Past contacts between ETA and the FARC illustrate the fact that also separatist terrorist organizations seek cooperation partners outside the EU on the basis of common interests. In the UK, dissident Irish republican groups, principally the RIRA and the CIRA, and other paramilitary groups may continue to engage in crime and violence.
Perception is not reality. Due to the right wing’s influence and propaganda, people mistakenly think that Islamic terrorism is the greatest threat to the Western world. It is even a commonly held belief that Islamic terrorism poses an existential threat–that the very survival of the Western world is at stake. Of course, the reality is that there are other groups that engage in terrorism on a much larger scale, yet these terrorist incidents are minimized. Acts of terrorism committed by Muslims are purposefully sensationalized and focused upon, culminating in the idea that “(nearly) all terrorists are Muslims.”
Terrorism from Islamic extremists is certainly a cause for concern, but it need not be an issue that creates mass hysteria. Nor should it be allowed to be such a critical issue that we are willing to sacrifice our ideals or civil rights for fear of it. Neither should we be reduced to a status of absolute sissitude. We have analyzed data from America and Europe (a good portion of the entire Western world), and the threat from Islamic terrorism is much more minimal than commonly assumed; in the U.S., it accounts for 6% of terrorist attacks, and in Europe not even half of a percent.
It is only through sensationalism and fear mongering that the topic of Islamic terrorism is allowed to be used to demonize a religious community that happens to be a minority in the West. When confronted by such lunacy, we ought to respond with the facts and the truth.
In a future article, we shall analyze the data for terrorism on the world stage in order to further strengthen our argument…
January 28th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Wow. Interesting find. This needs to be spread far and wide!
January 28th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
The article gives a good knowledge and shows the truth
January 28th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
By ’separatist’, do you mean ‘nationalist’?
If not, what do you mean by ’separatist’, since ’separatists’ plan/commit more acts classed as ‘terrorist’ than ultra-leftists, ultra-right and ‘islamist’.
January 28th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Excellent articles Danios. They completely pulverize the erroneous claims of right-wing pundits and bigots. Well done and thank you!
January 28th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
[quote=Important Question]By ’separatist’, do you mean ‘nationalist’?
If not, what do you mean by ’separatist’, since ’separatists’ plan/commit more acts classed as ‘terrorist’ than ultra-leftists, ultra-right and ‘islamist’.[/quote]
I think they mean separatists groups like the Basque in Spain, the IRA in UK and others like the Corsican Separatists in France.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
1980-2005, but what about post 9-11. I can hear them asking
January 29th, 2010 at 5:03 am
Danios,
I would suggest that if you were writing such an article online to convince people whatever you want them to believe, that you could at least provide objective statistics and reliable sources, not ones you see relevant.
You seem to discuss in length the incidence of terrorist attacks, but I think what intelligent people really care about is how effective those terrorists are in achieving their goal are and how many casualties are incurred as a result. Sure the separatists might commit more attacks than other groups according to your “find”, but if the seperatists kill 100 people in 50 attacks, its not exactly the same as the islamic terrorists who hijacked the 2 planes and killed 3000 people in approx 10 mins…
So sound as smart as you like, but no one intelligent person will take that you have any credibility…
January 29th, 2010 at 6:17 am
BUT: what about the ratio of number of casualties or cruelty of attack vs. who committed the attack.
Also: the number of terrorist attacks in the mideast and non-western regions of the world should be considered as well to draw the bigger picture
January 29th, 2010 at 7:36 am
Once again, brilliant article by Danios. You should do one about the victims of terrorism - most would be Muslim of course.
January 29th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Danios
Another good find, but brother can you write an article explaining Taqiyah?
January 29th, 2010 at 10:38 am
911 was in 2001.
January 29th, 2010 at 10:51 am
When I read the first paragraph I knew this would be an EXTREMELY flawed statistic.
The “terrorism” that is explained in this article is a completely different type of terrorism.
By this, I mean these are acts of violence against a few people.
The type of “terrorism” that we consider terrorism in America is the kind that is a major attack, like blowing up planes, bombing the USS Cole, etc.
Muslims will always be America’s #1 threat as far as teorrist attacks go.
Keep excusing these murderers folks. Left wing….tree hugging….
January 30th, 2010 at 2:14 am
Every peaceful muslim and non muslim must spread this article like a virus. Just spread however you can.
January 30th, 2010 at 5:34 am
Most of the victims of terrorist activity is by large Muslims them self.
In Pakistan over 10.000 people has been killed since the start of the “War on Terror”. Over 700 pakistanis has been directly killed by americans them selves under the Drone War. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (which is a seperate group and not part of the Afgan Taliban and Mullah Umar’s group) and BLA are directly supported and funded by indian security agency RAW from Afghanistan under a US provided umbrella. These people alone are responsible for 1000’s of human lives in Pakistan.
Total death toll in Afghanistan since the US invation: ca. 500.000 humans
Total death toll in Iraq since the US occupation: 1,2 milliom people as of 2008 according to a british organization (actually the only org. which ever did such a research in Iraq as the americans “do not keep track on bodies”.
How many more people has to die before USA has her 9/11 revange?
January 30th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
I will be writing an article very shortly to refute all the counter-arguments the Islamophobes have been coming up with. Stay tuned.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:27 am
Danios,
Thanks for outstanding research and publication!
February 1st, 2010 at 8:04 am
Great research, again.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:10 am
This vindicates the fact that media is mesmerising viewers/readers. Stats are showing truth.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:11 pm
What is a seperatist really? It sounds like its just a category to put an extremist radical Islamist into after they have committed a terrorist act. That way it makes Islam look better.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:27 pm
This is a great article guys. But I’m really worried about the latest things happening on loony geller’s website. She now claims the Mufti, and somehow Islam, played a major role in the holocaust. I don’t know how, but she acquired these documents pointing to the Mufti’s role in the holocaust. I’m afraid this might cause a huge rift between Muslim’s and Jews and will ensue in a bloody blame game. Can LW please look up on this? Thanks
February 1st, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Someone post another article STAT. I would…but I’ve been busy.
Ilm: That lame accusation against Muslims is very easy to refute…There are a few articles on the net that deal with this issue, such as the one written by Zaid Shakir. However, I do intend on covering this myself in the near future. Unfortunately, my time is very limited.
Sincerely,
Danios.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:47 pm
“She now claims the Mufti, and somehow Islam, played a major role in the holocaust. I don’t know how”
Notice that not even her lapdog Spencer has picked up on that. Anyone can see just how bizarre her claims are.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:52 pm
@Danios
I will be sure to look up the Zaid Shakir article inshallah. It’d be awesome to hear your opinion on this in the near future. Don’t worry about time though. We know it’s hard to keep up with life and these kind of issues. Unfortunately the Islamphobe’s lives revolve around this. Nothing else to do but amteurishly blog.
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Great article. Although I think the figures don’t quite prove your point. In India, most terrorist attacks are by separatists. Many of these separatists also happen to be Muslim (in Kashmir). There is also separatist struggles in Christian states where terrorist attacks would be carried out by Christians. It is incorrect to say 99.6% of terrorist attacks are by non-Muslims, they are not Islamist. Regardless of this, great stats to really make people re-think there bias.
Comment by Danios: The article clearly says in Europe. We shall examine the case on the global stage in a follow up article. In South Asia, one must not forget the Tamil Tigers, who are mostly Hindus.
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:46 am
Brilliant! I can just hear all of the loons sputtering, “Bbb-buh-but…”. BTW, This weird kitten moved into my garage this one week when our smaller garage door was broken and left open, so I fed him and he’d come and go, then he stayed, then (he was about 4 mos., not too tiny by then) one day he followed me into the house. The dog scared him and he ended up running up to my daughter’s room, so we just brought him food and a litter box.
The thing is, I had become obsessed with the name of a kid at my kids’ school, Abdussaboor Muhammad, so I named the cat that. But once I had named him this I started thinking of him as being Muslim…ROFL….I’ve never really thought of religious affiliation for my little family of furry housemates. Still, I love the name SO much, and I really hope that Mr. & Mrs. Muhammad don’t mind.
Sorry, I had to tell that story, I’ve never had a rescue pet who just came to my house and moved in himself. Plus, he stretches his hands out and eats by scooping his food to his mouth. He’s kind of weird, but he’s really cool. We love Abdussaboor Muhammad.
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Interesting findings, will the media pick up this. This need to spread out to all media.
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Danios… I love you. I just thought I should say that.
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:26 pm
That’s cute Lex!
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Thanks, Majda!
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:23 pm
And thanks Lex too…and everyone else!
February 8th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Danois, This is really interesting, these figures actually show there’s imbalance in how media reports terrorism. But is there a valid reason?
In EU the most sepratists are a major problem; but is it true that apart from a minority of cases, most attacks target the state appararus? And few attacks aim to inflict maximum civillian casualties.
Is it true that haveover few, recent terrorist attacks aim only at civillian casualties?
I have to admit, I’m not sure about the answers but only with to include qualitative aspects instead of just figures.
thanks again, interesting subject.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Danios,
When I look at the table for terrorist attacks in 2008 and look at the line for the UK, it shows a total of 74, but no breakdown. (There is a comment at the foot of the table that says there was 1 ‘Islamist’ attack in the UK in 2008. What were the causes of the other 73?
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:25 pm
but the fact the muslims which their blood shed by non-muslim. It must be published
March 12th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Having lived in Europe, I can provide a good definition of “separatist”. “Separatists” are people belonging to a minority ethnic group in a country, who wish to break away and form their own little ethnically defined country. Prominent ethnic groups that engender separatist activists (who are not always terrorists, of course) are the Basque people of France and Spain, the Corsicans and Bretons of France, the ethnic Germans of northern Italy (who want to rejoin Austria), certain right-wing groups in northern Italy who want to break away from Italy and create a new country centered around Milan, etc. Muslim activists by definition aspire to an Umma, which can in no way be described as an ethnically defined goal. However, in practice many ethnic groups in the Balkans identify themselves primarily as Muslims, like for example the Bosnians and Kosovars.
Finally a word to that red-blooded patriot who resents the “terrorist” bombing of the Cole. Attacks on regular military forces can never be called terrorist, since terrorism means attacking civilians. Duh.