Homegrown Muslim Terrorism Plots Decreased Again In 2011

WASHINGTON -- A new study of homegrown terrorism involving Muslim Americans suggests that the alarm bells set off by Republicans in Congress over sleeper cells of Islamic extremists may be much too loud.

Despite warnings of a potential wave of violent attacks hatched on U.S. soil, research by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security finds that the number of attacks committed by Muslim Americans has fallen for the second year in a row. According to the study, 20 Muslim Americans carried out or were arrested for violent terrorist crimes in 2011, down from 26 in 2010 and 49 in 2009.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the report said, 193 Muslim Americans have been arrested or convicted of violent terrorist acts. Last year was an average year for such offenses, the Durham, N.C.-based center said.

The findings, which follow revelations that the New York Police Department has spied on the city's Muslim community, are sure to bolster critics who warn that singling out Muslim Americans is counterproductive and bigoted, and may make the country less safe.

"Muslim American terrorism continued to be a miniscule threat to public safety last year. None of America's 14,000 murders in 2011 were due to Islamic extremism," said Charles Kurzman, the University of North Carolina sociologist who wrote the study as well as the book "The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists." He said, "The challenge is for Americans to be vigilant about potential violence while keeping these threats in perspective."

David Schanzer, the Triangle Center's director, said the study proves that "those who predicted an inevitable, rapid increase of homegrown violent extremism among Muslim Americans were wrong." He added, "While homegrown radicalization is still a problem, the offenders from 2011 were less skilled and less connected with international terrorist organizations than the offenders in the prior two years."

The overall drop in numbers aside, the study will likely bolster one fear raised on Capitol Hill. One in five Muslim American terrorist offenders last year had military experience. That's a sharp increase -- just 15 of the 193 perpetrators since 9/11 had served in the military -- and suggests there may be some truth to officials' concerns that Islamic extremists are infiltrating the ranks.

Among the study's other findings:

• Only one of the 20 offenders last year was accused of actually executing a terrorist attack.
• The 20 offenders do not match any one ethnic or racial profile: 30 percent are Arab, 25 percent white, and 15 percent African American.
• Last year's offenders were more likely to be converts to Islam, with 40 percent of them having changed their religion compared to 35 percent of all Muslim American terrorist offenders since 9/11.
• Only two of the 20 offenders received terrorism training abroad, compared to eight in 2010 and 28 in 2009, suggesting that those who do commit violent acts are learning their skills at home.

For more, read the full report here:

Kurzman Muslim-American Terrorism in the Decade Since 9 11

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[mfg75123]

12:32 PM on 03/25/2012

Thank You George W. Bush
Your Patriot Act is working
No thanks to the liberals and the media who were against it
Can't wait to see all thoughs losers try to give
Obama all the credit like they always do.
That's right Democrats Bush started it and Obama added alot more to it.
Funny how no one was upset with any thing Obama added to it
Must be that Hypocrisy thing you all seem to have
If you are against the Patriot Act both parties own it now.

[lynn foglesong]

01:34 PM on 02/16/2012

Muslims if you dont like it leave!!

[l78lancer]

02:31 PM on 02/11/2012

The politics of fear concerning terroristic threats won't win the election - the politics of economics and job creation will.

The GOP is finished for this election cycle because they don't have anything to run on.

[lynn foglesong]

01:37 PM on 02/16/2012

we have plenty to run on! the economy is still bad gas still high and going up, milk on the rise, people still loseing their jobs and homes, look at unemployment in sept oct just before we Vote, dont start golting to fast Dem, and kool-aid drinker!

[l78lancer]

07:37 PM on 02/16/2012

Be nice. Don't be a name caller unless you can construct a complete sentence and spell. You can ignore the progress of the economy if you'd like, but that will not win the election for you. If you believe that your verison of the economic reality will win, go for it.

Apparently you have more confidence in your cantidates' economic plans than they do. That's why they prefer to talk about women's bodies.

[Toddynho]

06:20 AM on 02/10/2012

Another credit to Obama's team that will be dismissed by Conservatives.

[lynn foglesong]

01:38 PM on 02/16/2012

This is not a game?

[jsgaetano]

02:18 AM on 02/10/2012

Yet conservative terrorism is on the rise. Hardly surprising that they want the FBI to stop doing their job of protecting America.

[Hannah Garrett]

03:50 AM on 02/10/2012

My thoughts exactly.

[thisNewFoundLand]

02:01 AM on 02/10/2012

...first of all, this should not be relegated to the religious section. More importantly, considering one is more likely to be struck by lightening than suffer a terrorist attack, i would say we are dealing with disinformation fundamentally (excuse the pun). Muslims are being scapegoated. We are being manipulated in the name of Corporate Militarism. And, to end my little rant, when did this word "Islamist" gain popular usage?! I find the term bizarre -- and about as appropriate as Christianist.

[Joel Mendez]

11:25 AM on 02/10/2012

"I find the term bizarre"-- i call all theists religionists, irrespective of what religious affiliation they have. religious ppl are ALL nuts.

[ussuri]

11:47 AM on 02/10/2012

amen, amen, amen!!!!

[AllegroTroppo]

11:46 PM on 02/09/2012

We're glad our security forces have done such a good job containing Islamic extremism.
Homeland Security Act proven to be very beneficial.
Let's continue the good work and maintaining our vigilance.
It only takes a few extremists to cause tremendous damage.

[Joe Goforth]

11:30 PM on 02/09/2012

Why are the 9/11 bombings not included in the statistics? It just takes one like that one to get more than a bit worried. Does it matter where people have come from that want to kill you? I think We have a police state in America because of what reason exactly? Why are we at war again? I guess we don't include non homegrown terrorists in this example. If you are dead does it matter from what country the killer came from? In my mind if there is an ideology that invokes terrorism then we need to be interested in finding out why.

[jsgaetano]

02:20 AM on 02/10/2012

Because 9/11 was due to the Bush Administration's failure, just like their failure to help the residents of NOLA after Katrina and Rita. If Cheney wouldn't have been at NORAD on 9/11, preventing them from doing their job...

[lynn foglesong]

12:49 PM on 02/16/2012

9/11 WAS PLANNED UNDER BILL CLINTON PLUS WTC ATTACKED IN 1993 BOMBINGS !!

[lynn foglesong]

12:50 PM on 02/16/2012

what you wanted bush to shoot down the air planes???

[Joel Mendez]

11:31 AM on 02/10/2012

"In my mind if there is an ideology that invokes terrorism then we need to be interested in finding out why"-- it's religion, in general. why? b/c it's easy to kill when your victims are not really human beings, are flawed, or don't believe the same crazy stuff. we already know why this happens. you don't see atheists bombing anything. you don't see humanists killing abortion doctors, you don't see freethinkers flying planes into buildings. we yell at theists, they blithely ignore they're the problem, so we insult and ridicule them. we don't issue fatwahs, mutilate genitals, or propose legislation to marginalize them.

you want to solve the problem? tell everyone you know to read the bible, cover to cover, without skipping anything. we need more atheists.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

10:40 PM on 02/09/2012

The numbers game on terrorists, however you spin it, is the tip of this iceberg, described by Thomas Friedman:

"You can’t have a democracy without citizens, and you can’t have citizens without trust — without trust that everyone will be treated with equality under the law, no matter who is in power, and without trust in a shared vision of what kind of society people are trying to build.

America has that kind of trust because our country started with a shared idea that attracted the people. The borders came later. In most of the Arab states awakening today, the borders came first, drawn by foreign powers, and now the people trapped within them are trying to find a shared set of ideas to live by and trust each other with as equal citizens.
…

We often forget how unusual America is as a self-governing, pluralistic society. We elected a black man whose grandfather was a Muslim as president at a time of deep economic crisis, and now we’re considering replacing him with a Mormon. Who in the world does that? Not many, especially in the Middle East. Yet, clearly, many people there now deeply long to be citizens — not all, but many.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/opinion/friedman-freedom-at-4-below.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

American Islamists do not share the pluralistic ideas that make America different from Muslim countries.

[Abdul-Halim Vazquez]

01:29 AM on 02/10/2012

American Islamists do not share the pluralisti­c ideas that make America different from Muslim countries.American Islamists do not share the pluralisti­c ideas that make America different from Muslim countries.

-------

Do you?

[GotPC]

09:59 AM on 02/10/2012

"Do you?"

- The important question is: do they? We are talking about Islamic terrorism that is actual today and I don't think anyone disagrees with Jan on this.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

10:21 AM on 02/10/2012

­American Islamists do not share the pluralisti­­c ideas that make America different from Muslim countries.

-------

Do you?
==========

Do you?

What a lovely game--any number can play.

[swimmer249]

10:39 PM on 02/09/2012

There really isn't a "war on terrorism." Terrorism is a tactic, it's a political tool. Everyone has used terrorism, including the US.

[jsgaetano]

02:22 AM on 02/10/2012

And as we've seen, US conservatives love terrorism.

[lynn foglesong]

12:52 PM on 02/16/2012

Is that why Obama has been bombing pakistain borders and drone attacks around the world??

[Doug Sandlin]

08:06 PM on 02/09/2012

Awesome article.

I link to that report often, as many people here know.

Facts are important.

[Toddynho]

06:18 AM on 02/10/2012

Facts are a nuisance if you're a conservative.

[Kittenesque]

07:01 PM on 02/09/2012

How come this is not top news or even on the first page?

[Jelle NL]

04:36 PM on 02/09/2012

In about 10 years time "193 Muslim Americans have been arrested or convicted of violent terrorist acts.” --- How many of those 193 “perpetrators” have been actually found guilty?

[Doug Sandlin]

08:09 PM on 02/09/2012

I believe the 8 page report linked above (and below) has all the details.

I don't recall the conviction rate, but I know it describes how many people arrested actually perpetrated plots, as opposed to simply planning them, and it also give the total number of people murdered by American Muslim terrorists in the last decade (33), which it compares to the number of Americans murdered by other Americans during that same time period (roughly 150,000).

It also points out that the number one source for reporting those people to authorities was American Muslims, themselves.

Well worth reading, in my opinion -- a lot of information in 8 pages.

http://sanford.duke.edu/centers/tcths/about/documents/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_Since_911_An_Accounting.pdf

[Doug Sandlin]

08:14 PM on 02/09/2012

I just realized - there are 3 reports total -- two of them have very different titles.

The 8 page report I mentioned in my other comment is the 2nd report.

The 3rd report is linked / available in the article above --- sorry for any confusion.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

02:46 PM on 02/09/2012

The comparisons of murders committed by Islamists--an ideology whose members are murdering worldwide--to accidental deaths are disturbing.

They trivialize the differences, legal and emotional and political, between accidental death and political murder and insults our intelligence.

But most of all, these callous comparisons, sometimes even made with attempts at humor, say a lot about the uncaring worldview of the perpetrator of such comments--everything--even murder and attempted murder--is depreciated and minimized in their effort to protect Islam at all costs.

The very definition of a fanatic with tunnel vision.

[Doug Sandlin]

08:15 PM on 02/09/2012

Where did you see that information?

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

09:17 PM on 02/09/2012

Can you be more specific?

[BrianPK80]

03:24 AM on 02/10/2012

There were far more deaths from right-wing & anti-government terrorists in 2011 than "Islamists," whatever that means. Oslo, Tuscon, etc.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

08:32 AM on 02/10/2012

Islamists­," whatever that means
============

Bernard Lewis noticed the increasing competition between Islamism and liberal democracy some time ago and predicted exactly what is happening now:

"It should now be clear that we are facing a mood and a movement far transcending the level of issues and policies and the governments that pursue them.

This is no less than a clash of civilizations—that perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present, and the worldwide expansion of both.

It is crucially important that we on our side should not be provoked into an equally historic but also equally irrational reaction against that rival."

Bernard Lewis: The Roots of Muslim Rage, 1990.

I believe Lewis' last sentence is a warning against the real possibility of a religious war. To avoid that, the competition will have to be resolved, at least in the West.

I see only two possibilities for resolving that old rivalry now occurring within Western countries:

1. The West will change its political ideology to accommodate its citizens who are Islamist colonists or

2. The colonists will reject a great deal of jihadist doctrine on Islam's divine right to political supremacy.

If the second path is taken, the present colonists can become honest citizens of Western culture--with no mental reservations about primary loyalty to any foreign sovereignty such as the Umma.

Lewis' explanation:

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2002/01/lewis.htm

[illogicalWorld]

01:00 PM on 02/09/2012

1. According to the FBI’s own database (available from 1980-2005), less than 6% of terrorist attacks in America were committed by Muslims.

2. Europol has been documenting terrorism for the last half decade. Their annual terrorism reports show that less than 1% of terrorism in Europe involves Muslims.

3. Since 9/11–which was over a decade ago–zero U.S. civilians have been killed by Islamic terrorists.

4. Similarly, zero European civilians have been killed by Islamic terrorists in the last half decade. In fact, the only injuries incurred from Islamic terrorism were to a security guard who “was slightly wounded.” Perhaps the “anti-jihadist” blogosphere should find this one security guard and give him a medal of honor and declare him a martyr for the cause.

Putting into perspective, you as an American have a much greater chance of being struck or even killed by lightning than being killed by an Islamic terrorist. Using conservative estimates, atleast 300 Americans are struck by lightning every year, and of them, 67 die–way higher than the whopping zero Americans that die every year from Islamic terrorists.

Another way to think of this is that you as an American have a much higher chance of dying from a peanut than an Islamic terrorist: at least 120 Americans die from an allergic reaction to peanuts every year. Should we wage a War on Peanuts?

http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/02/new-york-times-article-understates-how-overstated-islamic-terrorism-threat-really-is/

[nb7264]

02:23 PM on 02/09/2012

Only on salted peanuts.

[Joel Mendez]

12:00 PM on 02/10/2012

and cashews. i hate cashews.

[Caernarvon]

03:08 PM on 02/09/2012

That site isn't really the best source for unbiased info. It's roughly equivalent to backing up criticism of Islam by citing Atlas Shrugs or Jihad Watch.