This article first appeared in Eagle Rising.
Juan Cole-PhD
"Minuscule" numbers
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has just published the results of a study that shows a dramatic increase in the numbers of terrorist deaths in recent years. It is a stark rebuttal to apologists who try to downplay the problem of international Islamic terr around the world.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/5243/special-report-what-the-alarming-increase-in#
"IPT research found that on average of 3,284 people died in Islamist terror attacks only five years ago. Today, that average is 28,708 per year."
Of course, numbers like that don't seem to deter the Angela Merkels and Barack Obamas of the world who insist that we must allow tens of thousands of "Syrian refugees" to enter our countries notwithstanding the admission of our own intelligence agencies that we cannot adequately vet them.
Nor does it sway academics like noted Islamist apologist professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan. As I have often reported, I heard him speak at California State University at Long Beach in 2014, where he stated that the 400 or so British jihadis who had gone off to join ISIS represented a "minuscule" number compared to the some 4 million Muslims residing in the UK. Thus, it was racist of PM David Cameron to even announce it publicly.
Now it gets worse. Here is one of Cole's latest postings from his curiously-named blog, Informed Comment:
http://www.juancole.com/2016/03/30-americans-die-worldwide-from-terrorism-annually-while-130000-die-by-accident.html
"In the same period, some 303 Americans died from terrorism worldwide, or 30.3 per year."
Maybe Cole should have been a mathematician. At any rate, what he fails to comprehend is the damage that just a couple of returning jihadis can do in a European or American city. Witness Paris. Witness Brussels. What is wrong or immoral with trying to prevent massacres like that?
Of course, Cole's statistics avoided 2001 because had he included the nearly 3,000 killed on 9-11, his averages would have been skewed just a tad. Cole also tries to pare it down to a single victim nationality, in this case, Americans. The IPT study includes all nationalities. And why not? This is an international problem.
The learned Dr Cole may think that Islamic terrorism is a "minuscule" issue, but he would do well to read the IPT report. Of course, he won't.
Yesterday, at a Muslim conference aimed at disconnecting Islam from the terror attacks in San Bernardino and Brussels, MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati asserted that Americans have more to fear from non-Muslim violent extremism than from Muslim terrorism. He cited Peter Bergen's book, "United States of Jihad," as his source.
ReplyDeleteWhat Bergen wrote is, “As we have seen, by the end of 2015, forty-five people had been killed in jihadist terror attacks in the United States, while right-wing racists and anti-government militants had killed forty-eight.” (page 270) Note that his sample of data excluded the 9/11/01 Islamic terror attacks on New York and Washington which killed 2,977. This is just another example of how selective sampling of terror attack data distorts the true picture of Islamic terrorism in the U.S.
And days ago he was appearing with none other than Hillary Clinton. I have heard Marayati's dissembling on multiple occasions. In 2012 he personally told me there was no death penalty for leaving Islam hence no need for him to sign Nonie Darwish's Freedom pledge that American ex-Muslims should not be harmed. He would make an ideal running mate for Hillary Clinton.
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