WORLDPOST

Muslims Are Not Terrorists: A Factual Look

at Terrorism and Islam
12/09/2015 01:27 pm ET | Updated Jun 15, 2016
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Omar Alnatour Palestinian-American Muslim. Student. Humanitarian.

COURTESY OF OMAR ALNATOUR

Every time an act of terror or shooting occurs, Muslims closely watch the
news with extreme trepidation praying that the suspect is not Muslim. This is
not because these terrorists are likely to be Muslim but rather because in the
instances where they happen to be, we see amplified mass media coverage
and extreme unjustified hatred towards Muslims.
As a Muslim, I am tired of condemning terrorist attacks being carried out by
inherently violent people who hijack my religion. I am tired of condemning
these attacks to people who are calm and apathetic when Muslims are
killed by these same radicalized terrorists.

I am tired of hearing the word terrorist not being used when the suspect in a
terrorist attack is a non-Muslim. I am tired of the mentally disabled excuse
being recycled when the suspect in a terrorist attack is a Caucasian. I am tired
of seeing hundreds of terrorist attacks carried out by non-Muslims not get the
same coverage of even a single terrorist attack where the suspect happens to
be Muslim.

Above it all, I am tired of having to repeatedly say that Muslims are not
terrorists. It is time we silence this Islamophobia with facts. My next five points
will prove once and for all that Muslims are not terrorists:

1. Non-Muslims make up the majority of terrorists in the United

States:According to the FBI, 94% of terrorist attacks carried out in the United
States from 1980 to 2005 have been by non-Muslims. This means that an
American terrorist suspect is over nine times more likely to be a non-Muslim
than a Muslim. According to this same report, there were more Jewish acts of
terrorism in the United States than Islamic, yet when was the last time we
heard about the threat of Jewish terrorism in the media? For the same exact
reasons that we cannot blame the entire religion of Judaism or Christianity for
the violent actions of those carrying out crimes under the names of these
religions, we have absolutely no justifiable grounds to blame Muslims for
terrorism.
2. Non-Muslims make up the majority of terrorists in Europe: There have
been over one thousand terrorist attacks in Europe in the past five years.
Take a guess at what percent of those terrorists were Muslim. Wrong, now
guess again. Its less than 2%.

3. Even if all terrorist attacks were carried out by Muslims, you still could
not associate terrorism with Islam: There have been 140,000 terror attacks
committed worldwide since 1970. Even if Muslims carried out all of these
attacks (which is an absurd assumption given the fact mentioned in my first
point), those terrorists would represent less than 0.00009 percent of all
Muslims. To put things into perspective, this means that you are more likely to
be struck by lightening in your lifetime than a Muslim is likely to commit a
terrorist attack during that same timespan.

4. If all Muslims are terrorists, then all Muslims are peacemakers: The
same statistical assumptions being used to falsely portray Muslims as violent
people can be used more accurately to portray Muslims as peaceful people. If
all Muslims are terrorists because a single digit percentage of terrorists
happen to be Muslim, then all Muslims are peacemakers because 5 out of the
past 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners (42 percent) have been Muslims.

5. If you are scared of Muslims then you should also be scared of

household furniture and toddlers: A study carried out by the University of
North Carolina showed that less than 0.0002% of Americans killed since 9/11
were killed by Muslims. (Ironically, this study was done in Chapel Hill: the
same place where a Caucasian non-Muslim killed three innocent Muslims as
the mainstream media brushed this terrorist attack off as a parking dispute).
Based on these numbers, and those of the Consumer Product Safety
Commission, the average American is more likely to be crushed to death by
their couch or television than they are to be killed by a Muslim. As a matter of
fact, Americans were more likely to be killed by a toddler in 2013 than they
were by a so-called Muslim terrorist.

When a drunk driver causes a car accident, we never blame the car
manufacturer for the violent actions of that driver. This is because we
understand that we cannot blame an entire car company that produces
millions of safe vehicles just because one of their cars was hijacked by a
reckless person who used it to cause harm. So what right do we have to
blame an entire religion of over 1.6 Billion peaceful people because of the
actions of a relatively insignificant few?

I will not deny that terrorism is a real threat, it definitely is. However, it is
extremely incorrect to associate the words Muslim and terrorist when
literally all the facts implore you to do otherwise. The only way that we as
Americans can defeat terrorism at home and across the world is by accurately
targeting its root causes. There have been 355 mass shootings in the United
States this year and falsely blaming Muslims for the San Bernardino shooting
will do absolutely nothing to address this serious problem. It is time that we
begin addressing terrorism on an educated and factual level.

As an American Muslim, I plead you all to deeply consider the facts mentioned
here the next time you see a news headline about Muslims and terrorism.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do
that. We cannot allow the disparity in media coverage to blind us from the
facts and turn us into hateful people, we are smarter than that.
Muslims and Islam:
Key findings in the
U.S. and around the
world
BY MICHAEL LIPKA331 COMMENTS
Muslims are the fastest-growing religious group in the world. The growth and
regional migration of Muslims, combined with the ongoing impact of the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other extremist groups that commit
acts of violence in the name of Islam, have brought Muslims and the Islamic
faith to the forefront of the political debate in many countries. Yet many facts
about Muslims are not well known in some of these places, and most
Americans who live in a country with a relatively small Muslim population
say they know little or nothing about Islam.
Here are answers to some key questions about Muslims, compiled from
several Pew Research Center reports published in recent years:

How many Muslims are there? Where do they live?

 There were 1.6 billion Muslims in the
world as of 2010 roughly 23% of the global population according to a Pew
Research Center estimate. But while Islam is currently the worlds second-largest
religion (after Christianity), it is the fastest-growing major religion. Indeed, if
current demographic trends continue, the number of Muslims is expected to
exceed the number of Christiansby the end of this century.
Although many countries in the Middle East-North Africa region, where the
religion originated in the seventh century, are heavily Muslim, the region is
home to only about 20% of the worlds Muslims. A majority of the Muslims
globally (62%) live in the Asia-Pacific region, including large populations in
Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey.
Indonesia is currently the country with the worlds single largest Muslim
population, but Pew Research Center projects that India will have that
distinction by the year 2050 (while remaining a majority Hindu country), with
more than 300 million Muslims.
The Muslim population in Europe also is growing; we project 10% of all Europeans
will be Muslims by 2050.
How many Muslims are there in the United States?
According to our best estimate, Muslims make up just less than 1% of the U.S.
adult population. Pew Research Centers 2014 Religious Landscape
Study (conducted in English and Spanish) found that 0.9% of U.S. adults
identify as Muslims. A 2011 survey of Muslim Americans, which was conducted
in English as well as Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, estimated that there were 1.8
million Muslim adults (and 2.75 million Muslims of all ages) in the country.
That survey also found that a majority of U.S. Muslims (63%) are immigrants.
Our demographic projections estimate that Muslims will make up 2.1% of the U.S.
population by the year 2050, surpassing people who identify as Jewish on the
basis of religion as the second-largest faith group in the country (not including
people who say they have no religion).
A recent Pew Research Center report estimated that the Muslim share of
immigrants granted permanent residency status (green cards) increased from
about 5% in 1992 to roughly 10% in 2012, representing about 100,000
immigrants in that year.
Why is the global Muslim population growing?
 There are two major factors behind the
rapid projected growth of Islam, and both involve simple demographics. For
one, Muslims have more children than members of other religious groups.
Around the world, each Muslim woman has an average of 3.1 children,
compared with 2.3 for all other groups combined.
Muslims are also the youngest (median age of 23 years old in 2010) of all
major religious groups, seven years younger than the median age of non-
Muslims. As a result, a larger share of Muslims already are, or will soon be, at
the point in their lives when they begin having children. This, combined with
high fertility rates, will fuel Muslim population growth.

While it does not change the global population, migration is helping to

increase the Muslim population in some regions, including North America and
Europe.

What do Muslims around the world believe?

 Like any religious group, the religious
beliefs and practices of Muslims vary depending on many factors, including
where in the world they live. But Muslims around the world arealmost
universally united by a belief in one God and the Prophet Muhammad, and the
practice of certain religious rituals, such as fasting during Ramadan, is
widespread.
In other areas, however, there is less unity. For instance, a Pew Research
Center survey of Muslims in 39 countries asked Muslims whether they want
sharia law, a legal code based on the Quran and other Islamic scripture, to be
the official law of the land in their country. Responses on this question vary
widely. Nearly all Muslims in Afghanistan (99%) and most in Iraq (91%) and
Pakistan (84%) support sharia law as official law. But in some other countries,
especially in Eastern Europe and Central Asia including Turkey (12%),
Kazakhstan (10%) and Azerbaijan (8%) relatively few favor the
implementation of sharia law.
How do Muslims feel about groups like ISIS?
Recent surveys show that most people in several countries with significant
Muslim populations have an unfavorable view of ISIS, including virtually all
respondents in Lebanon and 94% in Jordan. Relatively small shares say they
see ISIS favorably. In some countries, considerable portions of the population
do not offer an opinion about ISIS, including a majority (62%) of Pakistanis.
Favorable views of ISIS are somewhat higher in Nigeria (14%) than most other
nations. Among Nigerian Muslims, 20% say they see ISIS favorably (compared
with 7% of Nigerian Christians). The Nigerian militant group Boko Haram,
which has been conducting a terrorist campaign in the country for years,
has sworn allegiance to ISIS.
More generally, Muslims mostly say that suicide bombings and other forms of
violence against civilians in the name of Islam are rarely or never justified,
including 92% in Indonesia and 91% in Iraq. In the United States, a 2011
survey found that 86% of Muslimssay that such tactics are rarely or never
justified. An additional 7% say suicide bombings are sometimes justified and
1% say they are often justified in these circumstances.
In a few countries, a quarter or more of Muslims say that these acts of violence
are at least sometimes justified, including 40% in the Palestinian territories,
39% in Afghanistan, 29% in Egypt and 26% in Bangladesh.

In many cases, people in countries with large Muslim populations are as

concerned as Western nations about the threat of Islamic extremism, and have
become increasingly concerned in recent years. About two-thirds of people in
Nigeria (68%) and Lebanon (67%) said earlier this year they
are very concerned about Islamic extremism in their country, both up
significantly since 2013.
What do American Muslims believe?
Our 2011 survey of Muslim Americans found that roughly half of U.S. Muslims
(48%) say their own religious leaders have not done enough to speak out
against Islamic extremists.
Living in a religiously pluralistic society, Muslim Americans are more likely
than Muslims in many other nations to have many non-Muslim friends. Only
about half (48%) of U.S. Muslims say all or most of their close friends are also
Muslims, compared with a global median of 95% in the 39 countries we
surveyed.

Roughly seven-in-ten U.S. Muslims (69%) say religion is very important in their
lives. Virtually all (96%) say they believe in God, nearly two-thirds (65%)
report praying at least daily and nearly half (47%) say they attend religious
services at least weekly. By all of these traditional measures, Muslims in the
U.S. are roughly as religious as U.S. Christians, although they are less religious
than Muslims in many other nations.
When it comes to political and social views, Muslims are far more likely to
identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (70%) than the Republican
Party (11%) and to say they prefer a bigger government providing more
services (68%) over a smaller government providing fewer services (21%). As
of 2011, U.S. Muslims were somewhat split between those who said
homosexuality should be accepted by society (39%) and those who said it
should be discouraged (45%), although the group had grown considerably
more accepting of homosexuality since a similar survey was conducted in
2007.
What is the difference between Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims?
Sunnis and Shias are two subgroups of Islam, just as Catholics and Protestants
are two subgroups within Christianity. The Sunni-Shia divide is nearly 1,400
years old, dating back to a dispute over the succession of leadership in the
Muslim community following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632.
While the two groups agree on some core tenets of Islam, there are differences
in beliefs and practices, and in some cases Sunnis do not consider Shias to be
Muslims.
With the exception of a few countries, including Iran (which is majority Shia)
as well as Iraq and Lebanon (which are split), most nations with a large
number of Muslims have more Sunnis than Shias. In the U.S., 65% identify as
Sunnis and 11% as Shias (with the rest identifying with neither group,
including some who say they are just a Muslim).
How do Americans and Europeans perceive Muslims?
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2014 asked Americans to rate
members of eight religious groups on a feeling thermometer from 0 to 100,
where 0 reflects the coldest, most negative possible rating and 100 the
warmest, most positive rating. Overall, Americans rated Muslims rather coolly
an average of 40, which was comparable to the average rating they gave
atheists (41). Americans view the six other religious groups mentioned in the
survey (Jews, Catholics, evangelical Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and
Mormons) more warmly.
Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican Party gave Muslims
an average rating of 33, considerably cooler than Democrats rating toward
Muslims (47).
Republicans also are more likely than Democrats to say they are very concerned about
the rise of Islamic extremism in the world (83% vs. 53%) and in the U.S. (65% vs.
38%), according to a December 2015 survey. That survey also found that Republicans
are more likely than Democrats to say that Islam is more likely than other religions to
encourage violence among its believers (68% vs. 30% of Democrats) and that
Muslims should be subject to more scrutiny than people of other religions (49% vs.
20%). Overall, most Americans (61%) say Muslims should not be subject to
additional scrutiny solely because of their religion, while U.S. adults are closely
divided on the question of whether Islam is more likely than other religions to
encourage violence.
About half of Americans (49%) think at least some U.S. Muslims are anti-
American, greater than the share who say just a few or none are anti-American,
according to a January 2016 survey. On the other hand, the same survey also found
that most Americans (59%) believe there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in
the U.S. today, and even more (76%) say discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.
is on the rise.
Nearly half of U.S. adults (47%) say they do not personally know a Muslim, while a
similar share (52%) do know at least one person who is Muslim.
In spring 2016, we asked residents of European counties whether they viewed
Muslims favorably or unfavorably. Perceptions varied across European nations, from
a largely favorable view in France (67%), Germany (65%) and the United Kingdom
(63%) to a less favorable view in Italy (25%), Poland (19%) and Hungary (14%).
How do Muslims and Westerners perceive each other?
 In a 2011 survey, majorities of
respondents in a few Western European countries, including 62% in France
and 61% in Germany, said that relations between Muslims and Westerners
were bad, while about half of Americans (48%) agreed. Similarly, most Muslims
in several Muslim-majority nations including Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and
Jordan agreed that relations were bad, although fewer Muslims in Pakistan
(45%) and Indonesia (41%) had this view.
The same survey also asked aboutcharacteristics the two groups may associate with
one another. Across the seven Muslim-majority countries and territories
surveyed, a median of 68% of Muslims said they view Westerners as selfish.
Considerable shares also called Westerners other negative adjectives,
including violent (median of 66%), greedy (64%) and immoral (61%), while
fewer attributed positive characteristics like respectful of women (44%),
honest (33%) and tolerant (31%) to Westerners.
Westerners views of Muslims were more mixed. A median of 50% across four
Western European countries, the U.S. and Russia called Muslims violent and a
median of 58% called them fanatical, but fewer used negative words like
greedy, immoral or selfish. A median of just 22% of Westerners said Muslims
are respectful of women, but far more said Muslims are honest (median of
51%) and generous (41%).

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Dec. 7, 2015.

OUT OF PROPORTION

Are All Terrorists Muslims? Its

Not Even Close
What percentage of terror attacks in the United States and
Europe are committed by Muslims? Guess. Nope. Guess
again. And again...

DEAN OBEIDALLAH

01.14.15 6:45 PM ET

Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims. How
many times have you heard that one? Sure, we heard Fox Newss Brian
Kilmeade say it, but to me, that was simply part of the Fox News plan to
make their viewers dumber, as we saw again this past weekend when its
terrorism expert Steve Emerson was caught fabricating the
story that Birmingham, England, is closed to non-Muslims. But more
alarmingly, even some reasonable people have uttered this statement.
And that comment is often followed up by the question: Why dont we
see Christian, Buddhist, or Jewish terrorists?
Obviously, there are people who sincerely view themselves as Muslims
who have committed horrible acts in the name of Islam. We Muslims can
make the case that their actions are not based on any part of the faith but
on their own political agenda. But they are Muslims, no denying that.
However, and this will probably shock many, so you might want to take a
breath: Overwhelmingly, those who have committed terrorist attacks in
the United States and Europe arent Muslims. Lets give that a moment
to sink in.
Now, its not your fault if you arent aware of that fact. You can blame the
media. (Yes, Sarah Palin and I actually agree on one thing: The
mainstream media sucks.)
So here are some statistics for those interested. Lets start with Europe.
Want to guess what percent of the terrorist attacks there were committed
by Muslims over the past five years? Wrong. That is, unless you said less
than 2 percent.
As Europol, the European Unions law-enforcement agency, noted in its
report released last year, the vast majority of terror attacks in Europe
were perpetrated by separatist groups. For example, in 2013, there were
152 terror attacks in Europe. Only two of them were religiously
motivated, while 84 were predicated upon ethno-nationalist or
separatist beliefs.
We are talking about groups like Frances FLNC, which advocates an
independent nation for the island of Corsica. In December 2013, FLNC
terrorists carried out simultaneous rocket attacks against police stations
in two French cities. And in Greece in late 2013, the left-wing Militant
Popular Revolutionary Forces shot and killed two members of the right-
wing political party Golden Dawn. While over in Italy, the anarchist
group FAI engaged in numerous terror attacks including sending a bomb
to a journalist. And the list goes on and on.
Have you heard of these incidents? Probably not. But if Muslims had
committed them do you think you our media wouldve covered it? No
need to answer, thats a rhetorical question.
Even after one of the worst terror attacks ever in Europe in 2011, when
Anders Breivik slaughtered 77 people in Norway to further his anti-
Muslim, anti-immigrant, and pro-Christian Europe agenda as he stated
in his manifesto, how much press did we see in the United States? Yes, it
was covered, but not the way we see when a Muslim terrorist is involved.
Plus we didnt see terrorism experts fill the cable news sphere asking how
we can stop future Christian terrorists. In fact, even the suggestion that
Breivik was a Christian terrorist was met with outrage by many,
including Fox Newss Bill OReilly.
Have you heard about the Buddhist terrorists? Well, extremist Buddhists
have killed many Muslim civilians in Burma, and just a few months ago
in Sri Lanka, some went on a violent rampage burning down Muslim
homes and businesses and slaughtering four Muslims.
Or what about the (dare I mention them) Jewish terrorists? Per the 2013
State Departments report on terrorism, there were 399 acts of terror
committed by Israeli settlers in what are known as price tag attacks.
These Jewish terrorists attacked Palestinian civilians causing physical
injuries to 93 of them and also vandalized scores of mosques and
Christian churches.
Back in the United States, the percentage of terror attacks committed by
Muslims is almost as miniscule as in Europe. An FBI study looking at
terrorism committed on U.S. soil between 1980 and 2005 found that 94
percent of the terror attacks were committed by non-Muslims. In
actuality, 42 percent of terror attacks were carried out by Latino-related
groups, followed by 24 percent perpetrated by extreme left-wing actors.
And as a 2014 study by University of North Carolina found, since the
9/11 attacks, Muslim-linked terrorism has claimed the lives of 37
Americans. In that same time period, more than 190,000 Americans
were murdered (PDF).
In fact in 2013, it was actually more likely Americans would be killed by a
toddler than a terrorist. In that year, three Americans were killed in the
Boston Marathon bombing. How many people did toddlers kill in 2013?
Five, all by accidentally shooting a gun.
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But our media simply do not cover the non-Muslim terror attacks with
same gusto. Why? Its a business decision. Stories about scary others
play better. Its a story that can simply be framed as good versus evil with
Americans being the good guy and the brown Muslim as the bad.
Honestly, when is the last time we heard the media refer to those who
attack abortion clinics as Christian terrorists, even though these
attacks occur atone of every five reproductive health-care facilities? That
doesnt sell as well. After all we are a so-called Christian nation, so that
would require us to look at the enemy within our country, and that
makes many uncomfortable. Or worse, it makes them change the
channel.
Thats the same reason we dont see many stories about how to reduce
the 30 Americans killed each day by gun violence or the three women per
day killed by domestic violence. But the media will have on expert after
expert discussing how can we stop these scary brown Muslims from
killing any more Americans despite the fact you actually have a better
chance of being killed bya refrigerator falling on you.
Look, this article is not going to change the medias business model. But
what I hope it does is cause some to realize that not all terrorists are
Muslims. In fact, they are actually a very small percent of those that are.
Now, Im not saying to ignore the dangers posed by Islamic radicals. Im
just saying look out for those refrigerators.