Those still convinced that the west is immersed in a clash of civilizations with Islam may be in for a shock. While it may be debatable whether Europe is more or less free than the US, its experience with terrorism is rather different.
A recent Europol report on terrorism on the continent, despite having been released a few weeks ago, has been curiously neglected by the media. One outstanding fact obtains: in 2006, of almost five hundred terrorist attacks in Europe, only one was by Islamists – and it failed.
And in spite of the fact that half of the terrorist related arrests involved Muslims, the report notes that,
“the arrests and convictions were not necessarily related to terrorist offences that took place during the reporting period.”
What is important to note is that arrests were driven by policies of targeting the Muslim community, and don’t necessarily correlate to an actual threat. According to the report, only 32% of those arrested were suspected of involvement in or the preparation of a terrorist attack. Not surprisingly,
“the number of arrests made in relation to Islamist terrorism in the UK is among the highest in the EU”.
Every national police or intelligence force contributing data could be said to have a similar reason for wishing to amplify the threat. Yet, the most they could come up with was a single failed attack. I can find only two references to this report in mainstream media outlets, one in the Boston Herald, the other in Deutsche Welle, neither of which refers to these figures, but both of which discuss a ‘growing terror threat’.
So much for ‘Eurabia’ and ‘Londonistan’. What this report proves yet again is that the incidence of Islamist terrorist activity is concentrated in parts of the world where US imperialism operates. Oh and of course, where Israeli occupation and human rights abuses are taking place.
Islamophobes like Melanie Phillips must be having anxiety attacks over the possibility that their universe might just implode.