New Report: Muslim Terrorism a ‘Minuscule Threat’

The main summary of the new UNC report analyzing terrorism, crime and the demographics behind it:

• Only one Muslim individual carried out a terrorism-related activity in the U.S. in 2011. The attack did not result in any fatalities.

• 20 individuals stand accused of terrorism-related activity, although it is unclear how many individuals overall in the U.S. are accused of terrorism-related crimes. Previous FBI data shows that Muslims usually make up 6% of domestic activity.

• Muslims were involved in disrupting many of these plots, working with law enforcement.

• Approximately 40% of those accused are converts to Islam.

• At least one attack was a Muslim targeting a mosque, confining his victims to other Muslims.

• In the decade from 2001-2011, approximately 200 American Muslims have been charged with terrorism-related activities. This number includes those who committed acts of terrorism overseas in places like Somalia and Yemen. Even if we take the conservative number of 2 million Muslims in the U.S., that means 0.01% of Muslims are involved in terrorism-related activity over the span of a decade. Per annum, it is 0.001%. If we take a more realistic number of 4 million American Muslims, the numbers become 0.005% over a decade, or 0.0005% per year. Last year there were 14,000 homicides in the U.S., and with a population of 300,000,000, that’s about 0.0005% of the population are murderers.

The report ends with this sage advice: “This study’s findings challenge Americans to be vigilant against the threat of homegrown terrorism while maintaining a responsible sense of proportion.”

This article also has a link to last year's report for comparison.

For those worried about the "evils of Islam", how do you reconcile that fear with the actual data?

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