…Islamic terrorism has not posed as large a threat as reporters and the public think – certainly not as large a threat as Al Qaeda and its affiliates intended. They routinely complain about the failure of Muslims to join their movement.
Of the 56 million people who die each year around the world, around two million die from HIV/AIDS. Nearly one million die from malaria. Almost three quarters of a million die from violence. According to the National Counterterrorism Center, terrorism peaked in 2007, with 23,000 fatalities, half of them in Iraq – a terrible toll, but not a leading cause of death.
In the United States, 15,000 people are murdered each year. Islamic terrorism, including the Beltway sniper attacks, has accounted for almost three dozen deaths in American since 9/11 – a small fraction of the violence that the country experiences every year. The toll would have been higher if the perpetrators has been more competent…Even so, the number of perpetrators has been relatively low. Fewer than 200 Muslim Americans have engaged in terrorist plots over the past decade – that’s out of a population of approximately two million. This constitutes a serious problem, but not nearly as great as public concern would suggest.
Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina
The Chronicle Review, August 12, 2011
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