Why your fear of Muslims doesn’t make sense

Natashya Gutierrez

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Why your fear of Muslims doesn’t make sense

AFP

The belief that most, if not all terrorists in the West are Muslim is widespread and viewed as a fact by many. But that assumption is far from reality.

The recent statement of Donald Trump urging a ban on Muslims entering the United States smacks of senseless Islamophobia.

Earlier, I wrote a blog about why we should stand up against blind prejudice like this, and why a policy like Trump’s is blatant religious discrimination and not the solution to anyone’s national security concern.

The reactions to the blog were concerning. While many denounced Trump’s proposal as beyond belief, the discussion was split – there were many others who backed Trump and supported a complete shutdown of Muslims entering America. 

One reader commented on Rappler’s Facebook page, “I agree with DONALD. He is just being blunt, extremism is [a] menace and which religion promotes or even encourages it? Your answer to the question will solve your own unapologetic and hypocritical stance.”

Another said, “It will be harder to solve the problem of Islamic Terrorism if people deny the reality of it.”

Much of the fear from commenters, and from Americans who have voiced their support for Trump, appears to come from a belief that most terrorists perpetrating attacks in the West are Muslim. But that assumption is far from reality.

The fact is this: most terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe have not been perpetrated by Muslims.

Want evidence? Here are the numbers.

Numbers don’t lie

The European Union’s law enforcement agency said less than 2% of terrorist attacks on the EU from 2009-2013 were “religiously motivated.” A whopping 98% or majority of the attacks were caused by separatist organizations – not Muslims in the name of Islam.

Examples? France’s FNLC which wants Corsica to be independent carried out attacks in 2013. Greece also experiences its own terrorists attacks from the left-wing group Militant Popular Revolutionary Forces. It’s the same thing in Italy, which has been terrorized by FAI, and so on.

TERRORISM IN THE EU. Only 2% of terrorist attacks in Europe are religiously motivated. Graphic by Rappler

The trend is the same in the United States.

According to an FBI study between 1980 and 2005, and a Princeton publication that compiled the data, only 6% of total terrorist attacks were perpetrated by Muslims. That’s right: 6%.

The other 94% were committed by Latinos (42%), Extreme Left Wing Groups (24%), Jewish extremists (7%), Communists (5%) and others (16%). And that’s over a 25-year-period.

More recent statistics? A 2015 study by New America Foundation found that since 9/11, right-wing terrorists have killed almost twice as many Americans than radical Islamists in the United States.

ATTACKS IN THE US. Only 6% of terrorist attacks in the United States were perpetrated by Muslims. Graphic from Rappler

So what basis does Trump, his supporters, and other Islamophobes have to back their claim that all terrorists are Muslims, or that the way to solve terrorism is to ban the entry of Muslims to the United States?

Media plays role

Media of course is partly to blame due to the massive coverage given the “Muslim terrorists” and the “Islamic terrorists,” making people think that most terrorist attacks are caused by Muslims. Where is the media coverage on the Christian terrorists? The Jewish terrorists? Or the separatist terrorists?

The Daily Beast aptly points out that those who attack abortion clinics are never referred to as “Christian terrorists” although they too kill for their religious beliefs. This is the same for Christians who kill lesbians or gays because they believe homosexuals are anti-Christ. Anders Breivik, who in 2011, killed 77 people in a bloodbath in Norway to push forward a “Christian Europe” was not coined a Christian terrorist either.

But media seems to feel it is okay to constantly refer to Islamic terrorists without hesitation, and to focus on terrorist attacks perpetrated by Islamist extremists but not other groups.

Even in the Philippines, people automatically link the word “terrorism” to Muslims in Mindanao. While there have indeed been acts of terror perpetrated by Muslim extremists in the South, it is important to note that the New People’s Army, a communist organization, is a non-Islamic terrorist group that has over the years also been behind the country’s deadliest attacks.

In fact, the NPA was considered one of the world’s “most active of the secular, political and anarchist groups” in the world in 2011, after having perpetrated 102 attacks.

How about other countries?

Now let’s look at the situation outside Europe and the United States.

In Asia, yes, the numbers are different. A 2011 National Counterterrorism Center report found that indeed, Sunni Muslim extremists accounted for the greatest number of terrorist attacks and fatalities around the world.

But here’s the caveat: Muslim-majority countries bear the greatest number of attacks, specifically war-torn nations.

According to the US Department of State, more than 60% of all terrorist attacks in 2014 took place in 5 countries: Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria – where the likes of ISIS, al-Shabaab, the Taliban and Boko Haram wreaked havoc (except for India which was terrorized by Maoists).

As for fatalities, a whopping 78% of all fatalities due to terrorist attacks took place in the same countries – Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – except India, which was replaced by Syria.

In fact, it was mostly Muslims who died at the hands of their fellow Muslims. Muslims suffered between 82% to 97% of terrorism-related fatalties between 2006 and 2011.

And as for these countries where Islamic extremists were most active, note that Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria are war zones. In Pakistan, other groups such as a number of Baloch nationalist groups fighting for independence carried out attacks. In Nigeria, there is an ongoing armed conflict between militant groups and the government.

That’s a mere 3% of countries in the world where most Islamic terrorist attacks and fatalities are concentrated. 

If you look further down the graph, India, Colombia, and Thailand are next as having the highest number of fatalities from terrorist attacks. Attacks in those countries are not perpetrated by Islamic extremists.

Unfounded fears

So are our fears of Muslims valid?

There is no denying radical Islamists have perpetrated horrifying terrorist attacks across the world. By all means, denounce Islamic terrorism, do not stand up for it. But denounce the attacks by Christians as well, and the communists and all other terrorist groups – both religious and secular – who in many, many countries actually wreak more havoc than Islamic terrorists.

But do not denounce Muslims or the religion of Islam.

To say a ban on Muslims entering the United States is the answer to a national security problem is validating the gross misconception that most terrorists in the West are Muslim. And to generalize Muslims as terrorists is to ignore the cries of the majority of Muslims in the world – who condemn the interpretation of Islamic extremists of their own religion. 

A Gallup world poll has the numbers: 93% of Muslims do not support extremist views of terrorism. Sadly these moderate Muslims are the ones who die most from these attacks.

So the next time someone argues that Muslims should be feared or banned or that Islam promotes hate and terror – talk facts. Numbers don’t lie.  – Rappler.com

Natashya Gutierrez lives in the country with the world’s largest Muslim population as the Bureau Chief of Rappler Indonesia. 

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Natashya Gutierrez

Natashya is President of Rappler. Among the pioneers of Rappler, she is an award-winning multimedia journalist and was also former editor-in-chief of Vice News Asia-Pacific. Gutierrez was named one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders for 2023.