Let me start with this: I have never understood and completely abhor those fellow Americans who plot to hurt innocent people in this country. It is a betrayal beyond all measure, and they deserve to be punished severely, if convicted of the allegations made against them. And, definitely, homegrown terrorism is a threat that must be dealt with. Yet, especially during this election season, we cannot let alarmism and fearmongering win the day.
Some elected politicians have talked about the threat from – not “homegrown terrorism” in general – but “Muslim” or “Islamic” homegrown terrorism specifically. Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, held four hearings in 2011 to examine “the extent of Muslim-American radicalization by al-Qaeda in their communities today and how terrible it is, the impact it has on families, how extensive it is, and also that the main victims of this are Muslim-Americans themselves.”
A study by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security examined Muslim homegrown terrorism, and it declared:
Threats remain: violent plots have not dwindled to zero, and revolutionary Islamist organizations overseas continue to call for Muslim-Americans to engage in violence. 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.
As the report says, this number is not “negligible,” but it is far less than some people would have you believe. And the number of plots and those who support them have been decreasing:
In addition to the decline in violent plots, the number of Muslim-Americans indicted for support of terrorism — financing, false statements, and other connections with terrorist plots and organizations, aside from violent plots — fell from 27 individuals in 2010 to 8 in 2011, bringing the total to 462 since 9/11.
Again, not “nothing,” but not a “scourge” as some would have you believe. In fact, a significant proportion of those plots were foiled by Muslims themselves:
Muslim-Americans continued to be a source of initial tips alerting law-enforcement authorities to violent terrorist plots. Muslim-Americans turned in 2 of 14 individuals in 2011 whose initial tip could be identified, bringing the total to 52 of 140 since 9/11.
The findings of this study have been replicated by other studies as well. The point is: homegrown terrorism is a very important issue, and again, as an American I expect law enforcement officials to expend every effort to stop terror plots from being materialized. But, as Professor Charles Kurzman, author of the current study, told the New York Times:
terrorism by Muslim Americans [is] “a minuscule threat to public safety.” Of about 14,000 murders in the United States last year, not a single one resulted from Islamic extremism, said Mr. Kurzman
Let not the forces of hatred succeed in dividing us through fear and misinformation. Let us be a better people and better nation than that.
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/commonwordcommonlord/2012/02/study-american-muslims-pose-little-threat.html#ixzz1lqif3AaP
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o'stephanie
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
Thank you Dr. Hassaballa. Sadly, sometimes I feel we will overcome this fear only when there is something new to be afraid of.
Strangely enough, Latinos, at 42% blow everyone away, but that leads me to believe that terrorism ain't what it used to be (labor strikes, for example, may be classified as terrorism these days).
Don't matter, though. Arab and Persian Muslims are the new black. Sucks to be you, for sure, but imagine of you were Sikh. Even worse, I'd imagine, and ain't no Sikh done a damn thing...
Americans are stupid, but we do have running water and a few other cool things. I hope those make up for the assholes, of which there are many.
RATED.
It is important for American Muslims to be aware of certain core American ideas and values that may be in conflict with Muslim ideals from conservative societies such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, or Indonesia. Compared with Turkey, Egypt, or Jordan, for example, there are some variations on how strictly some traditional customs are enforced, particularly with respect to women. For example the freedom women may have to go to school, pursue a profession, drive cars, go into public without a male escort, dress in western fashion as opposed to covering themselves with the hijab, the chador, the abiya, the niqab, or the burqa.
Is it safe to assume that since these customs vary from one Muslim country to another, that these traditions often have at least as much to do with regional social or tribal customs as they have to do with Islam itself?
What binds Americans together is not a religion; it is the Constitution. And so I am a firm believer in individual liberty, and equal rights for women. I think some of these American ideals are difficult and challenging for many Muslims.
I completely support the religious freedom of Muslims in America. The rights of Muslims to build mosques, and to publicly write and say what you wish, and the right to pray and worship as you please are equal to the rights of Christians to practice, or the rights of atheists to openly declare their non-belief in the supernatural.
While American culture can be welcoming to Muslims, American Muslims can help by educating newcomers about the liberal secular values of individual freedom that are protected by the Constitution. These principles protect the rights of Muslims to their religion as much as they protect the rights of others to advocate against religion.
American society and custom can not tolerate for example honor killings, or suppression of the rights of women to lead free and fulfilling lives outside of the jealous control of insecure males. There is no place in America for threats and intimidation and violence toward authors or artists or newspapers who create or publish works that Muslims deem offensive to the Prophet or to the Koran or to Islam itself. In America we are equal opportunity offenders; Muslims can complain and disagree and say offensive things about atheists in writing or in speech, but angry bearded mobs threatening to commit violence against an author, or Imams issuing death fatwas against artists or writers is something I hope we never ever see in this land of intellectual freedom I love. Such childish intolerance of intellectual dissent is anti-American, anti-Freedom, and anti-Modernism.
I can support Muslim freedom to worship, but I will never support Muslim attempts to drag America into the dark past we still see lingering in Muslim countries: the suppression of intellectual freedom, the darkness of anti-scientific ideas, the ignorance of patriarchal domination of women, the prudish suppression of sexual liberty, and brutal and violent punishments for free expression or adopting a belief or a lack of belief in any ideas.
There are extremists in every religion. Muslim Extremists, however, actually have some legit reasons for turning to the extreme measures that they do.
As an Arab/Persian Muslim, however, I would think you would know that. Obviously, even if you did somewhat endorse their actions, you couldn't come out and say so, for fear of your life and freedom being taken away (since you would then be a Muslim, Terrorist Sympathizer...I can do it, though, 'cause I'm white and Atheist...Viva America...if you're me and you're white and you have no religion).
Speak out against some of the US Foreign Policies in the Middle East ( and, I mean you specifically...or someone who looks and worships God as you do) and you'll see just how Muslim this country is.
As Salaam alaikum
The issue of terrorism is always important. Let us not forget the one most important fact -- terrorism grows in any place where intolerance rules the day and where such intolerance leads the majority to place limits, exclusions and exemptions on what can be done by the minority as compared to the majority.
Thanks for this reasoned piece Dr. Hassaballa. I am absolutely certain that the average Muslim is just as shocked and disgusted with the terrible acts by a few who claim to represent an entire faith with murder, destruction and violence in the name of their God.
Last I checked, the only god today that is still worshipped that could condone such violence would be Kali -- and even she prefers to have her violence in the form of natural events.
It is important for all who worship in the Muslim, Christian or Jewish faiths that they are all actually worshiping the same Divine Creator. That creator enjoins all three faiths from killing others.
--r--
Building, as opposed to burning , a bridge is what we most desperately need to combat the fear and recriminations of America's positively medieval anti-Muslim mindset. Thanks, Dr. for, well, being sane.