Muslim 'terror threat' belied by numbers

[xchrom]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NB10Ak02.html

WASHINGTON - The threat of terrorism carried out by Muslim Americans appears to have been exaggerated by US officials in recent years, according to a new study on domestic terrorism released Wednesday.

The study, the third in an annual series by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security in North Carolina, found that both the number of plots by and indictments against radicalized Muslim Americans fell sharply last year from a high in 2009, defying predictions by law enforcement and other officials.

Only one of the 20 Muslim Americans who were indicted in 2011 for plotting terrorist activities succeeded in carrying out an actual



attack; in that case, the assailant fired shots at military buildings outside Washington without injuring anyone.

"Threats remain: violent plots have not dwindled to zero, and revolutionary Islamist organizations overseas continue to call for Muslim-Americans to engage in violence," according to the report's principal author, Charles Kurzman, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina.

"However, the number of Muslim-Americans who have responded to these calls continues to be tiny, when compared with the population of more than 2 million Muslims in the United States and when compared with the total level of violence in the United States, which was on track to register 14,000 murders in 2011," wrote Kurzman who last year published a book titled The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists.

[marmar]

1. And even some of those 'plots and indictments' are shams.

Orchestrated circus shows for the frightened and uninformed.

[xchrom]

2. +1 -- i loved the bit about al queda wasn't 'all that'. D'UH. nt

[Jefferson23]

3. Highly recommend..who brought more terror on innocent people than the idiot George Bush

with his war on terror.

from the OP: Coincidentally, the new report was released as a senior Pentagon official suggested that Washington may also have exaggerated the threat posed by al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"Al-Qaeda wasn't as good as we thought they were on 9/11," Michael Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defence for special operations and low intensity conflict, told a conference here Tuesday.

"Quite frankly, we were asleep at the switch, the US government, prior to 9/11. So an organization that wasn't that good looked really great on 9/11. Everyone looked to the skies every day after 9/11 and said, 'When is the next attack?' And it didn't come, partly because al-Qaeda wasn't that capable," he was reported as saying by the Army Times.

"They didn't have other units here in the US .Really, they didn't have the capability to conduct a second attack," he added. (end)



Peter King can go to hell too.

[cbrer]

4. If citizens aren't afraid

How can they be controlled??

[Jefferson23]

5. kick n/t

[naragdaban]

6. European statistics confirm this as well

The 2011 EUROPOL report on terrorism, available here, stated that in 2010 (p. 26), out of a total 249 total terror attacks (or attempted terror attacks) 3 were by Muslims, 160 by separatists, 45 by left-wing groups, 0 by right-wing groups, 1 by single-issue groups, and 40 for unspecified reasons.

The 2010 report gives similar figures:

out of 249 total the previous year, 1 was Islamist, 237 separatist 40 left-wing, 4 right-wing, 2 single-issue and 10 "not specified"

From previous years: http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/01/terrorism-in-europe/