Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Who You Calling a Terrorist?

"... between 1980 and 2005, according to FBI statistics less than six percent of terrorist incidents during this fifteen year period were committed by Muslims, while 94% were committed by non-Muslims. Moreover, 23 of the 24 recorded terrorist incidents (2002-2005) were carried out by domestic terrorists The FBI claims that of the 83 terrorist attacks in the United States between 9/11 and the end of 2009, only three were clearly connected with the jihadist cause. (3.6% of total)

The picture is similar in Europe. Of a total of 1,571 terrorist attacks in the E.U. from 2006-2008 only 6 were committed by Islamist terrorists which translates to less than 0.4% of all attacks, which means 99.6% of all attacks were committed by Non-Muslims.

According to the FBI, with the exception of a white supremacist’s firebombing of a synagogue in Oklahoma City, all of the domestic terrorist incidents were committed by special interest extremists active in the animal rights and environmental movements."
Read Franklin Lamb's "Congressman Peter King's Great Muslim Scare" here.

Comment: At salary hell there have been occasions when the kind of 'thinking' that equates all Muslims with terrorism has reared its ugly head.  I find it amusing frankly.  A kind of remote control un-thinking drawn from American/European paranoia that has no place in South African politics.

Last night a radio station was discussing the proposed Muslim Marriages Bill.  The host (a white non-Muslim woman) and her expert guest (a white non-Muslim woman) had to put an end to calls from callers who wanted to press the un-thinking that Sharia has no place in South African law even where it pertains only (and by choice) to Muslims.

The point that Muslim marriages are not recognized under current legislation and the many instances of injustice that have been suffered mostly by woman in these marriages was mostly lost on the paranoia-prepped crowd that see any concession to Muslims/Islam as an injustice or affront to western values (even where induced through colonial/apartheid oppression).  (See TayoBlog for discussion.)

This kind of thinking was shared by white and black callers.  Strangely, this is a convenient time when many non-Muslim whites and blacks actually can agree on the un-thinking to keep Muslims/Islam in vigilant check.

Nonetheless, I do not expect that South Africa will be having Peter King-type hearings in the foreseeable future ... I think.

Though discussing Muslims/Islam in their absence (like the radio show did) is a kind of hostile "invisibility" covering the oh so visible 'problem' that Muslims represent in this historical moment.

Post-colonial writers may say it is an erasure or e-racing of Muslims/Islam. 

Onward!

2 comments:

desert demons said...

I think the main enemies are ignorance and pseudo-experts, for some reason even with all the real islam experts around both the US and Europe -and then as a result most of the world- speak the utter hogwash spewed by the likes of King/ Bernard Lewis/ Hirsi Ali / David Horowitz/ Irshad Manji etc

Ridwan said...

desert demons you are absolutely right. There is an anti-Islam industry in the west and its tentacles reach wide.

In the US folks like Horowitz have even put together lists of academics who they see as a threat.

The send spies into classes to capture comments and then place pressure on state legislatures to fire fingered academics/departments.

So much for the freedom of speech.

Kinda makes me think that their needs to be a stronger collaboration of like-minded folk who see the absolute racist evil that is now drawn under the concept "Islamaphobe".

Here at salary hell there would be attacks on Muslim/Islam in keeping with the goosestepping Islamaphobes were it not for a vigilant and very small minority.

Thanks as always for adding depth to the posts here.

Onward!

Ridwan