Notes

Are Muslims the most likely Victims of Terror?

Are the majority of terrorists' victims Muslim? BBC News, Ruth Alexander and Hannah Moore



20 January 2015



A Paris imam visited the scene of the Charlie Hebdo attack and condemned the murders. "These victims are martyrs and I will pray for them with all my heart," said Hassen Chalghoumi (above). He was also quoted as saying that 95% of the victims of terrorist attacks are Muslim. Is this true?



This claim is similar to one made by the US government's National Counter-Terrorism Center in 2011. It stated: "In cases where it could be determined the religion connection of terrorists killed, Muslims suffered between 82 percent and 97% of the terrorist-related deaths in the past five years."



However the report didn't specify in what percentage of cases it had been possible to determine the victims' religious affiliation, or whether these cases were representative of the others. Because the report has been taken off the record, it's difficult to determine the answers.



The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is a US-based group that still compiles terrorist statistics. However it doesn't even make an attempt to determine the religion of those killed or injured. To do so would be "very difficult" according to GTD's Erin Miller.



The reason is that the majority of the raw data comes from news reports, and they typically don't mention the religion of the victims. The GTD cannot determine who was behind the attack in the majority of cases.



Miller does point out however, that between 2004 and 2013 about half of all terrorist attacks and 60% of deaths caused by terrorist attacks, occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan all of which have a majority Muslim population.



So while she doubts that 95% of terrorist victims are Muslim but she believes the truth might not be far off.



"It's not outside the realm of possibility, given the extreme concentration of attacks on countries with a majority Muslim population," Miller says.



Definition of "terrorism"



Terrorist attacks are defined by the GTD as the threat or actual use of violence or force by a non state actor to achieve a political or economic goal through fear, coercion or intimidation.



Global Terrorism Database 2014 Codebook (p8)



People from the West might think of terrorist attacks in Charlie Hebdo or the 7/7 London Tube and Bus Bombs, or the Madrid Train Bombs. However, while some Muslims were killed in these attacks but the majority of victims were not Muslim.



The total number of deadly terrorist attacks in France as well as the UK, Spain and the US however, is quite low by international standards.



Between 2004 and 2013 between 2004 and 2013, the UK suffered 400 terrorist attacks, mostly in Northern Ireland, and almost all of them were non-lethal. The US was hit with more than 131 attacks, less than 20 of them were lethal. France was the victim of 47 attacks. However, in Iraq there were 12,000 attacks and 8,000 of them were lethal.



Erin Miller says there is another reason why she would not advise on the religion of victims, aside from the fact that reliable data is hard to find.



She says, "It's tempting to try to turn it into almost like a scorecard, trying to determine which religious groups are more violent than other groups and then boil it down to this very simplified way of keeping score as if it were a football."
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This is not the case, she claims. Most terrorist attacks are rooted in geopolitics, she says. "Religion is definitely a part of them, but it's not the only factor."



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Deadly month of jihadist attacks



11 December 2014


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