Muslim Diaspora bear the brunt of global terrorism, say researchers

Terrorist attacks on Muslims under reported by mainstream media outlets

In the wake of the recent terror attack on a London mosque targeting worshippers, researchers have hypothesised that Muslims are the worst affected by terrorism globally, according to ABC News.

While attacks by Muslims against non-Muslims in Europe have been under the spotlight in headlines recently, researchers from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (Start), a research and education centre at the University of Maryland, believe that Muslims are in fact the most likely victims of terrorism throughout the world.

Attacks target Muslims in the Middle East and beyond

Start Executive Director William Braniff and his team studied the causes and human consequences of terrorism, compiling details about attacks like the one that occurred in London. What they have found is that — although they did not always have information about the religious beliefs of the victims — Muslims were the most affected on a whole.

"In the Middle East, Muslims are the most likely victims of both terrorism and counterterrorism efforts," Braniff told.

His point of view may come as a surprise to Westerners who think about terrorism only as high-profile attacks carried out in the US and Europe, such as the 9/11 attacks and the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando back in 2016. But when he and his team looked at terrorism more closely, including regions like the Middle East and Africa, it became manifest that Muslims are most frequently targeted, he said.On May 30, for example, Islamic State killed 31 people in Iraq in dual bombings. One attack used a car bomb, and the other targeted a popular ice cream shop in central Baghdad, according to The Associated Press.


But those bombings drew significantly less attention from Western media than the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that took place May 22.

In the Manchester attack, Salman Abedi killed more than 20 people and left dozens of others injured, according to authorities.

But Braniff underscored that Muslims face threats from terrorism outside the Middle East as well. He said that Start researchers found an increase over the past several years in terrorism-related violence against Muslims in the 35 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an intergovernmental economic organisation that includes the US and much of Europe.

"Here, we have seen a rise in attacks perpetrated by extremists but also terrorist attacks targeted against Muslims," he said.

Attacks on the rise in the West but result in fewer fatalities

Erin Miller, the program manager of Start's Global Terrorism Database, which tracks attacks going back to 1970, agreed that attacks against Muslims are on the rise and offered some insight into why they do not always get the same media attention.

"There are many attacks against Muslims in the West, but they are frequently less lethal," she said.

Miller cited a report by a German media group that said there were 3,533 attacks on refugees and refugee hostels in Germany in 2016. Those attacks injured 560 people, including 43 children, according to the report, but did not result in any deaths.

Monday's attack in London, outside the Finsbury Park Mosque, injured at least 10 people, and one person died, but it is not clear if his death was a direct result of the attack.

Miller said that it is frequently difficult to determine the difference between what is referred to as a hate crime in the US and terrorism directed against Muslims, although that distinction is not the most important one to make when determining what groups are most often targeted by violence.

"The distinction between whether something is terrorism or a hate crime is often not very useful in this discussion," she said. "It's an artificial distinction."



The FBI defines a terrorist act as "a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, in violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state, to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."

The bureau defines a hate crime as "a traditional offence like murder, arson or vandalism, with an added element of bias."

Muslims are threatened by both terrorism and hate crimes in the West, according to Miller.