TEMPO.CO, Paris - After the Charlie Hebdo attack, an 'imam' went to the scene and condemned the murders. "These victims are martyrs, and I shall pray for them with all my heart," said Hassen Chalghoumi.
Chalghoumi also said that 95 percent of victims of terrorism are Muslim. The claim is similar to the US government's National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) report in 2011, which stated: "In cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97 percent of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years."
Another similar report came from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) at the University of Maryland. However, the report only compiles terrorism statistics, not determining the religion of people killed or injured. "To do so would be very difficult," said GTD's Erin Miller.
Miller later pointed out that 60 percent of fatalities due to terrorist attacks took place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan - all of which have a mostly Muslim population. Although doubting that 95 percent of terrorism victims are Muslim, Miller believes that the truth might not be far off.
As for the number of attacks that took place between 2004-2013, the UK suffered 400 terrorist attacks, mostly in Northern Ireland, and almost all of them were non-lethal. The US suffered 131 attacks, fewer than 20 of which were lethal. France suffered 47 attacks. Iraq, on the other hand, witnessed 12,000 attacks and 8,000 of them were lethal.
BBC | CININTYA SYAKYAKIRTI
