Take Me To Post Comment Form ""Not all Muslims are terrorists but most of the terrorists are Muslims.""


That is the common refrain and right wing talking point that you see on various message boards. I have seen and heard it so frequently, that unlike the devoted FOX audience which accepts as fact any information that supports their views, I decided to see for myself exactly how accurate that claim might be. It should come as no surprise to most of you that an objective analysis of that claim demonstrates it to be patently false.

My own research into the issue has led me to two reports. One issued by the FBI, covering incidents up through 2005. The other was issued by the RAND Corporation, and includes all of 2009.

Those of you who take the time to read my posts are quite familiar with my opinions about the amount of truth, or lack thereof that permeates contemporary political discussion. I won't take a lot of your time in this post with detailed analysis. I think sometimes that is part of the problem. The talk-radio crowd is spoon-fed certain opinions. Those opinions are then accepted as irrefutable fact. There is far too little independent thought and analysis, despite the plethora of reliable sources for credible information.

In these reports, you can distill the information for yourselves if you have the time and/or inclination. The FBI report is especially time-consuming as it does not include a summary that categorizes terrorist acts by type (e.g. jihadist, environmentalist, neo Nazi, etc.) It is a sad fact of life that television and radio talk show ratings rely on people being unwilling or unable to find out what is really going on in this country. The truth is drowned out in a cacophony of disingenuous sound bytes designed to generate Nielsen ratings, not inform the public.

The bottom line though is pretty simple. No matter how many times some columnist, pundit or ideologue claims that most terrorists are Muslims, when you take a look at the facts, you see that it simply is not true.

Out of the handfull of terrorism incidents documented in the FBI report, I include a brief citation of the case of the plot against an Islamic center in Florida. I have no doubt that some might accuse me of "cherry picking".

Well, the issue is most certainly "cherry picking". But the guilty parties are the corporate media who appear to have a blatant double-standard in reporting on "terrorist" activities. There was certainly no shortage of coverage of the Times Square bombing attempt. Excepting of course the fact, conveniently omitted from many of the reports that one of the first people to call the police about the incident in New York was a Muslim.

Now contrast that coverage with the coverage of the incident in Florida in 2002. How much did you hear about that?

The truth does matter. At least to some of us. As for the rest of you, there is always Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage, Beck, etc.

Speaking of Beck, did you hear the one about his speech at the recent rally? He described his trip to the National Archives where he claimed to "hold" George Washington's inaugural address. Did you hear about the response from the National Park Service? No one except trained staff is allowed to handle the documents.

And they call us leftists "useful idiots"; better a useful idiot than an idiot who is completely useless.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP292.pdf

The contrast between the level of terrorist violence in the United States today and that in the 1970s is indicated in RAND’s chronology of terrorism, which records 83 terrorist attacks in the United States between 9/11 and the end of 2009, only three of which were clearly connected with the jihadist cause.


http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terrorism2002_2005.htm


On August 22, 2002, police in Pinellas County, Florida, responding to a domestic dispute detained Robert J. Goldstein after finding numerous weapons and explosives and a “mission statement” threatening to attack Islamic facilities in the United States