Study: American Muslims arrested on terror charges down sharply

Mathloom · Feb 10, 2011

NEW YORK // The number of American Muslims convicted or arrested in connection with terrorism is in sharp decline, falling to 20 individuals last year from 47 in 2009, according to a new academic study.

The report from the Triangle Centre on Terrorism and Homeland Security at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill includes data on individuals involved in terrorism in the United States or abroad since the September 11 attacks.

The findings run counter to many US media reports on the scale of home-grown Islamic terrorism and provides fresh impetus to religious and civil rights groups working to prevent the demonisation of American Muslims.

David Schanzer, director of the centre, said the study "puts into perspective the threat presented by domestic radicalisation of Muslim Americans."

"Is this a problem that deserves the attention of law enforcement and the Muslim American community? Absolutely" he said. "But Americans should take note that these crimes are being perpetrated by a handful of people who actions are denounced and rejected by virtually all the Muslims living in the United States."

Several high-profile attacks have dominated the headlines in recent years, such as the killing of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 or the failed Times Square bombing last year.

But less noticed is the cooperation offered by many American Muslims to law enforcement agencies in order to prevent such attacks, according to the report.

The study said tip-offs from the American Muslim community provided the source of information that led to a terrorist plot being thwarted in 48 of 120 cases involving American Muslims since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

"Muslim-American terrorism makes news," said the report, called "Muslim American Terrorism Since 9/11: An Accounting". "Out of the thousands of acts of violence that occur in the United States each year, an efficient system of government prosecution and media coverage brings Muslim-American terrorism suspects to national attention, creating the impression - perhaps unintentionally - that Muslim-American terrorism is more prevalent than it really is."

The study noted that while there have been approximately 150,000 murders in the US since 9/11, terrorist attacks carried out by 11 American Muslims during the same period in the US killed 33 people, or about three deaths per year.

The number of American Muslims engaged in terrorist acts on domestic targets declined from 18 in 2009 to 10 in 2010. Meanwhile, a majority of terrorist activities took place outside the US. The higher figure for 2009 included 17 Somali-Americans who joined the Al Shabab Islamist movement, which is linked to al Qa'eda.

Charles Kurzman, the study's author and professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said: "Of course, even a single terrorist plot is too many. But this trend offers a challenge for the American public: if we ratchet up our security concerns when the rate of terrorism rises, should we ratchet down our concerns when it falls?"

Mr Kurzman said his new book, called The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists, to be published in June, would explain that "western concerns over Islamist terrorism seem to be out of proportion to the actual number of attacks."

"Most Muslims don't want what the revolutionaries are selling. Most don't want to engage in revolutionary violence.," he said. "Of those who do want it, fear of security forces or other reasons see them staying out of the fray. Those who do sympathise mostly do so because they are anti-imperialist."

He compared those who flirted with jihadi opinions on internet chat rooms and other forums to "radical chic" college students who put up posters of Che Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary, but did not actually want to see a Stalinist or socialist state come into being.

On Monday, a coalition of 51 US civil rights groups sent a letter calling on congressional leaders to either cancel or broaden expected hearings on American-Muslim extremism. The hearings have been called by Peter King, a New York Republican and chairman of the committee on homeland security in the House of Representatives, who has so far refused to change the scope of his investigation to include terrorist acts committed by non-Muslims.

The letter, which was signed by a wide range of groups including the Council on American Islamic Relations and Amnesty International USA, said: "These hearings will almost certainly increase widespread suspicion and mistrust of the American Muslim community and stoke anti-Muslim sentiment. During 2010, we saw an increase in anti-Muslim hatred in public discourse, as well as hate crimes and violence targeting American Muslims, and those perceived to be Muslim, including vandalism and arson of mosques, physical attacks, bullying of children in schools, and attempted murder."

The coalition's call has support from Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, who said that Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter of Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat, in Arizona last month was not Muslim.

"Attacks are just as likely to come from lone-wolf extremists - like James Wenneker von Brunn, the Holocaust Memorial Museum [in Washington in 2009] shooter, or Jared Lee Loughner, who is charged with the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona - as they are from Muslim extremist groups," Mr Thompson wrote last month in Politico, a Washington-based newspaper.
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Good read. Haven't really scrutinized it too much yet, but thought it was fascinating. I don't know that too many people would be surprised with this.

Thoughts?

trustme · Feb 10, 2011

Summary (at least from the bold parts): Islam isn't nearly as big a threat to America as people think it is.

AroundTheWorld · Feb 10, 2011

I thought I'd help you out with the link you forgot:

http://www.thenational.ae/news/worl...slims-arrested-on-terror-charges-down-sharply

HorryForThree · Feb 10, 2011

They are also down markedly in Europe.

The EU's Terrorism Situation and Trend Report pretty much says the same thing. The total number of terror attacks were down in 2009, and almost none of them were related to Islam.

In 2009, they report 297 terror attacks. Of them, 237 were conducted by European separatist groups, and approximately forty were done by leftists and separatists.

The report cites only 1 attack conducted by Islamists in all of 2009. The report states that "Eight Member States reported 110 arrests related to Islamist terrorism in comparison to 187 arrests reported by 10 Member States in 2008." It says later on: ""the number of arrests relating to Islamist terrorism (110) decreased by 41 percent compared to 2008, which continues the trend of a steady decrease since 2006."

It also debunks the widespread myth that Islamist terrorism is by and large a product of frustrated Muslim youth, "The average age of the arrested suspects is 34 years. As in previous years, almost 40 % of the arrested suspects are younger than 30. Suspects arrested for Islamist terrorism are, on average, older than those arrested for separatist terrorism."

The Vancouver Sun has a good article about it here.

B-Bob · Feb 10, 2011

This is just because Obama hides their crimes from us now. He is, after all, well, okay at the very least a MOSLEM ATOMIZER, I mean SYMPATHIZER!

Mathloom · Feb 10, 2011

AroundTheWorld said:

I thought I'd help you out with the link you forgot:

http://www.thenational.ae/news/worl...slims-arrested-on-terror-charges-down-sharply
Click to expand...

Oops, thanks!

DonnyMost · Feb 10, 2011

Good news all around.

Although I'm wondering, are American Muslims typically responsible for many of these crimes in the first place?

Space Ghost · Feb 10, 2011

We can twist this news around to fit any agenda.

Great news! The War on terrorism is working! Or the Islam extremist threat is overrated.

Also we shouldn't confuse terrorist attacks (although they have been very limited) with typical murders. Most killing sprees are the result of an individual who has lost it. When a group or individual goes in great detail to execute attacks on a very dense populated crowded, then that number "33" and quickly become 133 over night. Lets not forget two failed attempts at blowing up airliners.

JuanValdez · Feb 10, 2011

With numbers so small, I wonder if it means anything at all. Since they're measuring arrests, the difference could be fewer plots, or less effective law enforcement, or fewer entrapment stings. It seems like noise to me. I wouldn't say the threat has abated; only that there is some volatility in a microscopic number.

Rashmon · Feb 10, 2011

they're just laying low...

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Study: American Muslims arrested on terror charges down sharply

Are the results of this study surprising to you?

A lot of it is surprising

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