Oh look. Looky there. A headline on a Guardian Comment is Free post by Ben Doherty –
Pakistan attack reveals the truth about terrorism: it kills more poor Muslims than rich westerners
Golly gee, that’s exactly what I was saying in that post on Sunday that got so many people in such a (mostly fake) rage. How shockingly ideological to make that point! Why shouldn’t terrorism kill more poor Muslims than rich westerners? Why even mention it? It’s political correctness run mad.
Doherty commits the thought-crime all over again in the first paragraph. (Or, rather, he commits it too, since it was probably an editor who chose the title.)
Those who suffer most from Islamist extremism are not people in rich western nations, but other poor Muslims.
Shocking. He’s fighting class warfare by saying that. Shocking shocking.
But enough of that. His point is serious and of course it’s true. Nigeria all by itself is testimony to that, not to mention Syria and Iraq.
In 2012, there were 140 incidents of terrorism in the west. In 2013, that figure was more than 250, the increase driven by a sharp rise in attacks in Northern Ireland and Greece. Twelve people died.
But those figures are dwarfed by attacks outside the west.
In non-western countries, the increase was from 8,000 incidents in 2012 to more than 11,000 in 2013, the rise driven by continuing sectarian violence in Iraq and Pakistan, and deepening unrest in the Philippines and Egypt.
The number of non-western terrorism deaths in 2013 was over 22,000.
In November of this year, nearly 5,000 people died in Islamist fundamentalist terror attacks, the majority of those at the hands of Islamic State (Isis) or Boko Haram.
Just over half the dead were civilians, “the vast majority … Muslim,” the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation said.
The children and teachers murdered in Peshawar? It seems safe to assume they were mostly or all Muslims, culturally or observantly or anything in between. The “militants” are not there to fight for justice or equality.