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Ever since 9/11, Islamophobia has been a recurrent problem in a number of Western societies, including the United States. It's been fueled by opportunistic politicians, hate-mongering bloggers, and any number of the other usual suspects. The lingering fear of Islam undergirds the present concerns that the turmoil in Egypt might give groups like the Muslim Brotherhood greater political influence there.

Trying to inject reason and evidence into this sort of debate is usually futile, but I do wish to report some good news. Remember the avalanche of Muslim-based terrorism that was about to descend upon the West? Well, according to the EU's 2010 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, the total number of terrorist incidents in Europe declined in 2009. Even more important, the overwhelming majority of these incidents had nothing whatsoever to do with Islam.

The report is produced by Europol, which is the criminal intelligence agency of the European Union. In 2009, there were fewer than 300 terrorist incidents in Europe, a 33 percent decline from the previous year. The vast majority of these incidents (237 out of 294) were conducted by indigenous European separatist groups, with another forty or so attributed to leftists and/or anarchists. According to the report, a grand total of one (1) attack was conducted by Islamists. Put differently, Islamist groups were responsible for a whopping 0.34 percent of all terrorist incidents in Europe in 2009. In addition, the report notes, "the number of arrests relating to Islamist terrorism (110) decreased by 41 percent compared to 2008, which continues the trend of a steady decrease since 2006."

I know there are lot of people getting rich fueling Islamophobia, but we'd really all be better off if they would focus their attention to anarchists, or maybe separatist groups like ETA. The report isn't naive or Panglossian about Islamic radicalism, and it emphasizes that there are still extremist groups with worrisome ambitions. But their sifting of the data does put the actual danger in perspective and serves as a valuable corrective to the careless threat inflation that has become all too common over the past decade.

shafique wrote:Oh dear, herve is not going to be happy.

According to the official statistics, in 2010 there was only 1, yes ONE, terrorist act in the EU committed by 'Islamists'. 293 other terrorist acts occured, of which 237 were carried out by European separatists.

Red Chief wrote:In contrast, In Russia separatists are predominately Muslim. Only two recent attacks of kind people in Moscow subway 23.03.2010 and internatioanal airport 24.01.2011 killed 73 and injured 238.

shafique wrote:^See, I knew hervey boy wouldn't be happy. He's resorting to stating obvious, irrelevant facts.

The pope is catholic. Irish separatists are Christian. Chechen Seperatists are Muslim.

See, anyone can play that game.

However, the stats still show in 2010, only 0.34% of terrorist acts in the EU were carried out by Muslims.

Cheers,
Shafique

shafique wrote:
Russian, Iraqi, Afghanistani, Pakistani etc show different patterns - I totally agree.

shafique wrote:To be fair RC, European governments aren't closing the borders on all Muslims either.

The point here is that whilst in Russia there may be some statistical grounds to be more cautious about Terrorism from separatists who happen to be Muslim - the same can't be said for the EU - or in this case the USA.

I use the words Muslim and Christian to describe the religion the person follows - Islam or Christianity. I use 'Islamist' or 'Jihadist' to denote a Muslim terrorist using religion as motivation for violence (rather than a political goal). So I do try to be precise.

In this thread - we are talking about terrorist acts committed in the EU.

Cheers,
Shafique

Red Chief wrote: I would be very surprized if any Muslim was a victim as well as the Norway's Muslim community comprized of only 2% of total population of the country.

shafique wrote:'Jihadist' and 'Islamist' are terms that I tend to use in ' ' - and even when the Policeman in Norway called Brievik a Christian Fundamentalist, you'll notice that I put the term in quotes - i.e. I said 'Christian Fundamentalist' Terrorist.

In the past year, several EU Member States have successfully prevented attacks by Islamist terrorist groups, which aimed to cause mass casualties

Although the goals of terrorist and organised crime groups (OCGs) are different, an issue which is of growing concern to EU law enforcement are the connections between terrorist and organised crime groups’ activities.

Low level, individual and tribal contacts between OCGs active in drugs trafficking in West Africa, and ‘sub groups’ of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), raises the possibility that drugs trafficking to the EU could become a source of funding for some terrorist groups operating in the Sahel region.

If the unrest in the Arab world, especially in North Africa, leads to a major influx of immigrants into Europe, right-wing extremism and terrorism might gain a new lease of life by articulating more widespread
public apprehension about immigration from Muslim countries into Europe.