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The article Muslims Are Not Terrorists: A Factual Look at Terrorism and Islam (Omar Alnatour, HuffPost) claims that few terror attacks are motivated by Islam:

Non-Muslims make up the majority of terrorists in the United States: According to the FBI, 94% of terrorist attacks carried out in the United States from 1980 to 2005 have been by non-Muslims.

...

Non-Muslims make up the majority of terrorists in Europe: There have been over one thousand terrorist attacks in Europe in the past five years. Take a guess at what percent of those terrorists were Muslim. Wrong, now guess again. It’s less than 2%.

Are those claims correct? Are there any statistics showing what percentage of terror activities happen to Islam?

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    This claim of yours seems more dubious than any of the sources you criticize: "In fact, in practice, almost all terrorists are paid some salary"
    – tripleee
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 5:44
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    There isn't even any proper uniformly accepted definition of terrorism. Its always used by states to demean adversaries or insurgents who may or may not be terrorists. Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 9:02
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    The claim in the question body is opposite to the claim in the title.
    – Common Guy
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 9:15
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    Possible duplicate of Are most terrorists Muslim?
    – Christian
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 9:34
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    Also related: Islamic and non-islamic terrorism: casualties
    – DevSolar
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 11:37

1 Answer 1

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Terrorist attacks carried out on U.S. soil between 1980 and 2005

Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil by Group, From 1980 to 2005, According to FBI Database (via https://www.globalresearch.ca/non-muslims-carried-out-more-than-90-of-all-terrorist-attacks-in-america/5333619 and http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/01/not-all-terrorists-are-muslims/ )

The FBI further describes terrorism as either domestic or international, depending on the origin, base, and objectives of the terrorist organization. For the purpose of this report, the FBI will use the following definitions:

  • Domestic terrorism is the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or Puerto Rico without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.
  • International terrorism involves violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any state, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or any state. These acts appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping. International terrorist acts occur outside the United States or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to coerce or intimidate, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum.

For the European Union. Terrorist Attacks in the EU by Affiliation

Chart from 4

Another chart from https://www.unaoc.org/2011/08/terror-attacks-in-eu-countries-by-type-2010/

enter image description here

4: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terrorist_Attacks_in_the_EU_by_Affiliation_Updated.png Wikipedia

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    Sources? What is your interpretation of an attack?
    – daniel
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 8:02
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    What is a "Latino act of terrorism"? This graph is extremely weird. While I can see religious extremism as a cause for terrorism, I really don't understand how one can attribute an act of terrorism to "being latino". I could understand if the graph said drug or human-trafficking related, but tackling a ethnic group amidst political/religious groups makes little to no sense.
    – T. Sar
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 11:07
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    The chart seems a bit misleading to me. For example, most of the "extreme left wing groups" seem to be animal rights groups destroying farming equipment. I'm not endorsing that, but it is not what people normally think of as terrorism. The latino part seems to be mainly consisting of incidents in puerto rico related to independence movements.
    – tim
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 11:12
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    -1 because loonwatch is not reputable source and there is no explanation how the pie chart was compiled. The original source they link doesn't list those categories.
    – ventsyv
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 14:14
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    @Tim Given these statistics go back to the 80s, I think it's generous to suggest that left wing terrorism was just some animal activists destroying equipment. M19CO and the United Freedom Front were both heavily active in the 80s. Left wing terrorism from the 70s-90s was pretty prevalent in the US, even if the media was generous in their reporting of it. Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 15:03