patrick.net

"Is it politically incorrect to investigate this scientifically"

I don't think you understand how science works.

Modern-day terrorists (this distinction is important!) are disproportionately muslim for a few reasons:

- Poor transition in the post-colonial era.
- Overwhelming poverty
- Lack of opportunity for young men
- Real and imagined slights against predominantly islamic sovereign nations (various puppet dictatorships, coups, etc.) by western powers.

When these conditions exist, charismatic leaders with a cause convince desperate people to do terrible things. Today it's Muslims, half a century ago it was Europeans.

Islam has been around for thousands of years. Islamic terrorism has only been a major issue for a few decades.

This era will pass in a few more decades. At that point, southern Europe will likely be the poorest industrial region of the world, and most of the terrible violent acts will come from that area. Maybe people will blame Catholicism for it.

Kevin says

- Poor transition in the post-colonial era.

- Overwhelming poverty

- Lack of opportunity for young men

- Real and imagined slights against predominantly islamic sovereign nations (various puppet dictatorships, coups, etc.) by western powers.

All the points above are valid ( infact more severely) for non Islamic African countries and some south american countries. why are there no terrorists from that part ? infact there are many more extremely poor people on this planet who don't have opportunity and are someway or the other wronged by some power structure. they don't resort to terrorism. India,africa and china has some of the most poor people in the world. how many terrorists did you see from those countries ? do they not have young people with no opportunity and who are oppressed/exploited by the rich and powerful within the country or international ?

Kevin says

Islam has been around for thousands of years. Islamic terrorism has only been a major issue for a few decades.

yes .. but the art of terrorism and the access to guns and ammunition is new.

jaldi1 says

why are there no terrorists from that part ?

Are you fucking kidding me? South America is FULL of terrorist groups. They just don't target the US. Same in Africa. Entire villages are slaughtered regularly for the purpose of frightening people into some specific action. Do you believe there aren't any terrorists from those places because you've never heard them mentioned by mainstream US news sources? Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_designated_terrorist_organizations

I mean, shit. Talk about ignorance!

Terrorism has existed for as long as human civilization has existed. It is a tactic used by a (morally compromised) weak force against a strong force that they have no hope of defeating conventionally. Frighten the people and maybe the people will turn against the enemy that you're fighting. It's a shitty tactic, and sadly it actually works.

Since your only concern is clearly Islamic terrorist acts against the west, I would suggest you look no further than the recent history of western relations with the Arab world (yes, there are Islamic terrorists from non-arab states, but they pretty much all trace back to the same source). Instead of listening to right wing nutjobs make their claims about why islamic terrorists target americans, just listen to the nutjobs themselves, since they're pretty clear. They hate us (the west) because we support Israel. They hate us for the memory of colonialism. They hate us for our constant interference with their local politics.

If the west didn't have military bases and wasn't exerting political influence throughout the middle east, you wouldn't see terrorist attacks against us. You'd see the same kind of localized, tribal terrorism like you see in Africa and south america. It would still exist, but you wouldn't care because it wouldn't be mentioned in a cable news ticker.

Every terrorist, whether they be Osama bin Laden, Timothy McVeigh, or Anders Breivik, have the same basic motivations:

- They feel that they've been harmed by a much stronger power.
- They know that they can't defeat the power by conventional means.
- Their hatred for their perceived enemy overwhelms human emotions like guilt, and allows them to commit terrible acts.

Would you like to do a "scientific study" as to why such a large proportion of terrorists are white, politically conservative men? Why such a large proportion are mexican drug runners? Why such a large proportion are African warlords?

The basic claim that there are "such high numbers" of Muslim terrorists isn't even something you should take at face value. In terms of body count, exclusive of one single event (9/11, which skews things tremendously due to how successful it was), you'll find that the vast majority of terrorist kills of westerners were done by white conservative men. In terms of total number of attacks, the majority again come from white conservative men (even including 9/11). Do you have any idea how many terrorist attacks have been committed over the years by groups like the KKK, FARC, the IRA or the LRA? These are all groups with completely different motivations, and they all use the same tactics, and all for the same reasons.

(I say "conservative" here because, while the vast majority of these folks have been Christians of one flavor or another, it's hard to lump them together since religion wasn't their driving ideology: anti-government, anti-liberalism was).

Now, I'm being facetious here, of course. The whole reason for this thread is simple xenophobia, coded in the "can anyone explain?" format, which is what bigots generally use to defend their bigotry. Just say what you mean.

There have been literally hundreds of studies about the root causes of terrorism, from religion to poverty and everything in between. The answers keep coming up the same, and it's what I've mentioned here. The present scourge of Islamic terrorism is not unique in either its root cause or its continued existence. We are already seeing a sharp decline in terrorist activity originating from the muslim world. Much like the IRA a few decades ago, the muslims are coming to the conclusion that they can accomplish more politically than they can with car bombs.

Our great grandchildren will still live in a world where terrorism exists, but it won't be those weird hyper religious people in the desert that they associate it with.

jaldi1 says

Is it politically incorrect to investigate this scientifically ?
or did
our rational minds become slave to political correctness ?

I am not sure I follow?? Nobody is disputing that there are a high amount of Islamist jihadis. What is there to research?? Now if one wanted to study the cause or why or some such -fine. But why study if there are a large number of Islamist terrorist attacks or not-there are.

Kevin : Do you even read your sources ?
The link to wikipedia that you referred to shows that more than 80% of the terror organizations are Islamic.

Even though muslims are 23% of world population they do 95% of the religion based terrorism.
Also, it has been proven that most islamic terrorists are not poor but from middle class families.So your "poverty is the reason" thesis is not true.
Also there are countless poor oppressed people in the world who don't resort to terrorism.
if you keep all other variables same. country/education/level of income..etc , you will clearly see that people who follow islam will produce much more terrorists than other people.
I have yet to see so many killings in the name of any other religion as islam.
The African massacres that you quoted, how many are in the name of non -islamic religion ?

Either its due to poverty or due to Islam.

Kevin says

Would you like to do a "scientific study" as to why such a large proportion of terrorists are white, politically conservative men?

WTF are you taking about..did you take your meds ? can you give any evidence ?

What is your basis for comparison when you say "disproportionately high"? I would be willing to bet more people are murdered by Christians in the U.S. than by Muslims. But the media is controlled by the Judeo-Christian majority, so they don't mention the person's religion unless he is Muslim. When a Christian kills, they don't report that a "Christian" committed murder, they just say a murder took place. When a Muslim kills, they make sure to point out his religion.

Homeboy says

When a Christian kills, they don't report that a "Christian" committed murder, they just say a murder took place.

how many murders do you see in US which are motivated by religious extremism ?
Do you have some data or is it all smoke ?

Motivation is what's important here. When Muslims commit acts of terror they do it for religious reasons, not economic reasons. They act this way because it is how the very first Muslims acted. Conversion by the sword was the reason Islam spread beyond the Podunk town of Mecca where a crazed camel jockey (with an eye for pedophilia) came up with a reason to murder the next town over and subjugate them. He wrote all that garbage later to justify violence against "unbelievers," which his newly deceased neighbors certainly were. And threat of violence made other towns convert until the entire Arab world was ruled by the caliph. As religions go, Islam has a lot in common with Scientology. Started by one author, makes kooky and unsupportable claims. But Tom Cruise only whacks people in movies. These rag heads do it by the thousand to anyone not in favor with their imams.

jaldi1 says

how many murders do you see in US which are motivated by religious extremism ?

Do you have some data or is it all smoke ?

Well, for example, I would say the entire Iraq invasion was motivated by religious extremism. Bush constantly invoked the Judeo-Christian god in his speeches and was a very strong proponent of dissolving the separation of church and state in the U.S. Estimates for the number of deaths resulting from the invasion go as high as one million.

Kevin says

Maybe people will blame Catholicism for it.

time to put the crack pipe down... at least mention they do know how to dress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Italy

Italy has a diversified industrial economy with high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and developed infrastructure. According to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and The World Factbook, in 2012 Italy was the ninth-largest economy in the world, the fifth-largest in Europe and the third-largest in the Eurozone in terms of nominal GDP,[12] and the tenth-largest economy in the world and fifth-largest in Europe in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP