Those that want to minimise Islamic terrorist attacks so that Islam doesn’t appear to be so bad will use a number of rhetorical and statistical tricks to do so. Some of the most common are surely these:
- Refer to Islamic terror attacks ONLY in the USA.
- Refer to Islamic terror attacks SINCE 9/11.
- Compare Islamic terror attacks to ALL ‘FAR RIGHT’ terrorist acts combined, with a generous conflation of both the attackers motives and the labelling of acts as ‘terrorism’.
- Selective choice between extremism and terrorism.
- “Nothing to do with Islam”.
This first chart is from New America, Terrorism in America 19 Years After 9/11
The take-home that the Islamic apologists want to you to accept from this is that, well, “Islamic terrorism ain’t so bad, look at far right extremism.”
A common claim is that “right wing EXTREMISM is rising faster than Islamic extremism.” This is BS. At any instant, following some event, it may indeed be the case that far right extremism rises faster than Islamic extremism, but that’s because deaths that occur as a result of right wing extremism are often somewhat incidental, or unplanned, and mostly result in a smaller number of deaths. It doesn’t take some Islamic terrorist long to boost their victim count and leapfrog the far right terrorists.
Nevertheless, looking at the chart above, it does seem clear that right wing extremism is a serious threat, in the USA. But this is of no great relief to citizens that still care about Islamic extremism, since all Muslims account for a meagre 1% of the US population, and of course Islamic extremists are a tiny minority of US Muslims. So that those ‘Jihadist’ victims are on a par with those of right wing extremists is a pretty serious problem.
Here’s a better representation of the data … in the 9/11 era, not the post-9/11 era, compared to far right ideology.
I’ve emphasised the fact that the term EXTREMISM is used with regard to the far right, as that allows the narrative to include those on the far right with extremists views, whether they have engaged in terrorist acts or not. On the other hand, when it comes to Islam, the use of the term ‘extremism’ is often used to include only Islamic terrorist acts or foiled plots to engage in terrorist acts.
This is a dishonest comparison, because even within the small US Muslim population ‘extremist’ views (death for apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, homosexuality, harsh punishments for sex outside marriage, etc.) are more common than many would like to admit. Many ex-Muslims will confirm that their families wish them dead, for being apostates, even if they are not prepared to carry out the sentence themselves.
One can even ask to what extent is Islamic extremism NOT far right extremism? Islam’s more fundamentalist forms are ultra conservative, political, ‘nationalistic’ (‘the nation of Islam’, ‘Muslim lands’, ‘the Muslim Ummah’), judicial, misogynistic, homophobic, … it has all the hallmarks or a far right nationalist supremacist ideology, … and, it just happens to revolve around a religious ideology, as does the Christian far right. What is NOT far right about Islamic extremism?
And, “Nothing to do with Islam”? Everything about Islamic extremism is about Islam and its various prescriptions and proscriptions.
It’s been an astonishing ride for the last decade or so, and two narratives typify the Islamic apologetics that has been going on, in addition to the above.
When Charlottesville happened, Donald Trump disavowed the far right extremists and white supremacists and racists – and has done so often, on record. And yet because he also pointed out that there were many ‘good people’ in the Charlottesville protests the extremists, this was seen as tacit support for the far right.
Yet, when Obama said “Nothing to do with Islam”, a direct lie, his supporters agreed whole heartedly.
The far right, the white supremacists, the racists, should be called out and argued against whenever we find them. And far right extremists that plot to engage in terrorist acts should be hunted down and prosecuted.
More honesty about Islamic extremism and terrorism, and less apologising for it, would go a long way to making the US and the rest of the world safer.
France’s Macron has eventually been forced to accept this, because Islamic terrorists in Europe have a freer hand than they do in the USA, because:
- Europe has tolerated extremist Islam and its hate preachers, and has even funded them through self-proclaimed representative organisations.
- They can get into Europe more easily.
- Islamic apologetics from non-Muslim pseudo-liberals is even stronger in Europe.
- Europe’s ‘hate speech’ laws and the lack of constitutional support for free speech has stifled those that speak out against Islam (and Islamic paedophiles grooming gangs).
Europe has already allowed Islamic extremism to flourish. The USA should not. More honesty about Islam would help.
Ramblings 