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Kids! B4 u join the jihad, read this

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Dec 11, 2009

Muslim victims of jihadist violence (Credit: MSNBC)

Five young  Muslim-Americans have been arrested in Pakistan on suspicions that they intended to commit terror against U.S. forces.

According to The Chicago Tribune, “One of them left behind  a video that showed American casualties. In the video he stated that Muslims needed to stand up and fight to defend their fellow Muslims…”

Whoops. It turns out that al-Qa’ida’s jihad kills eight times more Muslims than Westerners.

Here’s the data to prove it. Deadly Vanguards: A Study of al-Qa’ida’s Violence Against Muslims is a new study that uses Arabic-language sources to track down and add up the casualties of jihad. Some of the conclusions:

* “From 2004 to 2008, only 15% of the 3,010 victims [of al-Qa’ida attacks] were Western.”

* “From 2006 to 2008, only 2% (12 of 661 victims) are from the West, and the remaining 98% are inhabitants of countries with Muslim majorities.”

* “One could argue that non-Western casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan are unfortunate martyrs or collateral damage given the ongoing wars initiated by the United States.” But “[o]utside the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, 99% of al-Qa’ida’s victims were non-Western in 2007, and 96% were non-Western in 2008. From 2006 to 2008, only 9 of 352 victims were Westerners (3%), meaning that non-Westerners were 38 times more likely to die in an al-Qa’ida attack outside of Iraq and Afghanistan during those years.” 

The authors of this report — Nassir Abdullah, Scott Helftstein and Muhammad al-Obaidi of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point — emphasize that their data is drawn “from exclusively Arabic news sources” in order to pre-empt charges of Western bias.

And the research illuminates an unmistakable reality: “Irrespective of al-Qaeda’s justifications,” the authors write, “if history provides a glimpse into the future, the group and its associates will pose the greatest threat to fellow Muslims.”

Kids, do like the Prophet and “read!” (That’s what the Angel Gabriel told him upon bringing down the first Quranic revelation). Read! This. Study.