1/28/2010

All terrorists are Muslims,Except 94% that Aren't

Posted by Andrew | Labels: , , ,

Thought-provoking post from the following site examining the implications of a recent report from Duke University examining acts of terrorism in the United States. Examining incidents from 1980 to 2005 the report found that 42% of the acts were committed by Latinos, 24% by leftists, 7% by Jews and 6% by Muslims.


The numbers are based on figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation which can be found here. Therefore, Jewish and Islamic extremists in these categories committed the violent act due to their extreme positions in the religion. They were no simply categorized as Jewish or Islamic because it was their religion.

The point of the original blog and why I find these numbers so interesting, is that based on the media coverage of terrorism in the United States you would think all terrorist acts were perpetrated by Islamic extremists, not simply 6% of them. Thus the old maxim, "Not all Muslims/Arabs are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim/Arab" is as ridiculous and racist as ever.

1 comments:

Bruce Kratky said...

I am reminded of two things. One is a young man who is in my small group study on Sunday nights. He is a wild statistician. He has memorized the Baseball Hall of Fame statistics book. I asked him who he thought was the greatest short stop to ever play the game. He came up with Honas Wagner. I told him he was wrong that it was Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs. He could not understand that there are things beyond statistics that are used to make judgements. Ernie was "Mr. Cub" and more. He brought to baseball, and Chicago, much more than lots of golden gloves and over five hundred home runs. Statistically he was superior, but he was more. Mr. Wagner was statistically ahead on some points, but he was not "Mr. Cub."

Secondly, I am reminded of the Superman Returns movie where Superman saves the lives of the passengers on a military transport that is inserting a space shuttle into orbit. The scene is incredible from a scenematic point of view. After the passengers have been scared to hell and back he steps on the plane and makes this statement, "I hope none of you are put off about flying. Statistically speaking it is still the safest way to travel." Louis Lane then walks to the door of the plan and faints.

Statistics can be at times, more than a little meaningless. This fellows research is proof of that.

6:58 PM  

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