Quote:
Originally Posted by
gimmick
My one argument is "Muslims do not pose a terrorist threat any more than any other major religion or ideology."
I'll address the more extreme/on a another level/super terrorist angle to save time. I don't think ISIS is fundamentally different from past groups. Most notorious terrorist groups were more extreme than previous groups.
Below are the rest of the non-existing arguments i apparently have never made. They are in many ways tied together. Not that many sentences. I'm sure you're capable of reading them all. That way we can save time when i don't have to quote myself in the future in response.
"Muslims do not pose a terrorist threat any more than any other major religion or ideology. On any given time and area one of them most likely shows the strongest correlation with recent attacks. Since the beginning of "private" terrorism around 1850 that top spot has changed multiple times. Since the beginning gender has shown stronger correlation in almost all time periods and geographical areas.
Even though it is extremely likely that any given random terrorist attack is done by a male terrorist, it is extremely unlikely that any random male is a terrorist. For me it would be silly to claim that men pose a terrorist threat. Because i think that, it would be even sillier to claim that a group that shows an even weaker correlation to current attacks would pose a terrorist threat.
And in case you're wondering, i do think that ISIS poses a terrorist threat. Dealing with those 50k deranged individuals can be done without fucking with 1,6 billion mostly harmless Muslims. Fucking with the 1,6b feeds in to that 50k and it keeps doing the 50k's information warfare for them."
I am glad you laid these out again. I'll explain why your argument has been confusing and lacking conviction (to me at least).
YOUR NOT-A-BIGGER THREAT ARGUMENT:
Your thesis: "Muslims do not pose a terrorist threat any more than any other major religion or ideology."
Then you say: "Most notorious terrorist groups were more extreme than previous groups." Here you acknowledge the inclination for
current thriving groups like ISIS and AQAP to be more "extreme" than previous groups, based on their
current status as the world's biggest terrorist organizations. Previous groups were groups like the the PLO and IRA, but have since died down significantly through various splits and ceasefires over the decades.
So you don't think ISIS is fundamentally different than terrorist groups in the past, you just think it's more extreme and more violent as part of a natural continuum of increasingly extreme groups that resort to terrorism? To me, an exponential jump in size, capability and brutality is a meaningful enough difference to warrant a closer look. While we can argue whether religion is really a driving force behind the violence, the correlation to Islam is unfortunately undeniable.
YOUR GENDER POINT:
Your point about gender being a more accurate identifier of a terrorist than religion sounds good, but we both know (at least I hope) that it's worthless in this argument and is kind of one of those "you're more likely to get killed by a toddler than a suicide bomber" points that falls flat.
One thing is that trying to filter, identify and monitor people that pose a particular threat to a population is different than trying to do something like track a serial killer. It matters that 90% of serial killers are male because you are looking for one person, whereas with terrorism, you are often dealing with a network of people that can extend beyond just young men. Also, I am sure that analysts do take into account that a man is more likely to carry a bomb into an airport, but they also know that a Muslim man is more likely to bring a bomb into an airport.
YOUR 1.6 BILLION SHOULDN'T SUFFER FOR 50k:
I think the YouTube video I posted earlier actually covers part of the counter-argument to this quite nicely, but I'll add a couple things, because I feel this is your strongest argument and I completely sympathize with Muslims who are tired of receiving extra scrutiny due to the actions of others that they have no control over. I feel the same way about "the hood" in major US cities and I feel badly that innocent people get their doors kicked in or stop-and-frisked without probable cause, but that doesn't mean that "the hood" isn't deserving of increased policing.
Just because the highest incidents of police abuse occur in a rough neighborhood doesn't detract from the fact that the most murders occur in rough neighborhoods. Do you see the parallel? I think it's a fair analogy.
I think it's important to take into account the fact that TODAY Islamic terrorist groups are the big startups in the terrorism world. I understand this may just be Islam's time to hold this title based on the uprisings, wars and subsequent power vacuums in the last several decades, but I am concerned about today and I am concerned about people who would want to attack a place like Chicago, where I currently live.
Maybe in 20-30 years some Christian or Jewish terrorist group will pose a bigger threat to Americans and the Islamic terror groups of today will seem preferable, but I am concerned with the current reality. For instance, the current top 5 most deadly terrorist organizations:
1) ISIS/ISIL (Muslim)
2) Boko Haram (Muslim)
3) Quds Force (Muslim)
4) Haqqani Network (Muslim)
5) Hezbollah (you guessed it... Muslim)
I take your point that going after these groups leads to collateral damage, perceived racist persecution, and the increased likelihood that their numbers will grow... but we are not in control of the actions of our military and intel agencies, in the same way the average Muslim doesn't give advice to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. However, the threat is very real and, as you point out, likely increasing as the "War on Terror" continues.
UPDATED LIST, as the above is based on the 2015 Global Terrorism Index. Here is the 2016 Global Terrorism Index updated top 4, in case you want to mix some current reality into your historical stew of relativism:
1) ISIL (still Muslim)
2) Taliban (still Muslim)
3) Boko Haram (still Muslim)
4) Al-Qa'ida (Buddhist)