"Understanding Islamist Terrorism".

Balliol wrote: Matt states, �There will, of course, be several reasons, but Islam is a major cause and a clear and obvious unifying one. What percentage of the World's Christians and Jews are murdering people and using their religion to justify it?� I will not bore you with the many examples that history gives us of Christians murdering people and using their religion to justify it. As for the Jews, well they are giving us regular examples of such a policy.

It's really tedious when current Islamic terrorism is being discussed and someone responds "But what about the crusades!" Just for the record I consider all religion bad and st**id. My point is simply about the tendency of adherents of different religions to commit horrible acts in the modern world.

And yes, I'm well aware of recent and current examples of christian, buddhist, maoist (if you want to consider that a religion), seikh, jewish and hindu wickedness.

But it would take remarkable ignorance to claim that the threat from modern Islamic extremism is not on a completely different order of magnitude to these other religions. See, for example,
http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2015.pdf

Of the 50 worst terrorist incidents (by fatalities) in 2014, 45 were committed by organisations with explicitly Islamic motivation (Boko Haram, ISIL, the Pakistani Taliban, Al-Shabaab, Al-Nusra Front, The Taliban). Three were carried out by political independence movements and two by unknown groups. Of the 48 with known causes, none were committed by explicitly Christian, Jewish or other religious groups.

While attacks in North America and Europe in 2014 were trivial in comparison to the number of deaths in Africa and Asia, four of the five most serious attacks in the West were carried out by muslims. Admittedly most of these were known to have mental health problems, but that does not absolve Islam from its role in the attendent murders.

So no, please don't bore us with "the many examples that history gives us of Christians murdering people and using their religion to justify it", but feel free to share any evidence you have that other religions present a comparable threat to Islam in the modern world.

"As for the Jews, well they are giving us regular examples of such a policy." Really? Would you like to justify that statement? Do you really mean Jews, or do you actually mean Israel?

I am well aware of Palistinian deaths in the 2014 Gaza conflict. There were over 2,000. (As an aside, compare this to one event of Islamic terrorism on September 11th 2001, or the 5,800 deaths caused by the largest 45 Islamic attacks in 2014.)

Is it really your contention that the events in Gaza represented a Jewish policy to murder people in the name of Judaism? Because that is what you appear to be saying. Do you think what the Israeli state has done and continues to do is the Jewish equivalent of the actions of Boko Haram, ISIL, etc?

Or let's look at it another way. Let me assume you are not a practising jew of muslim. Who do you think is more likely to kill you for your non-belief, a jew or a muslim? Would you feel safer walking the streets of Golders Green, Jerusalem, Mecca or Islamabad?