Are You Also a Terrorist?

Dear World,

Please do not blame the entire Muslim community for the heinous acts of an extremely small group of radical extremists among them.

In Europe, there are Muslims and there are radical Muslims. Then there are violent Muslim extremists who commit acts of terror, like murdering 129 people out enjoying a Friday night in Paris.

These are the people who get on a plane to Syria and join one of the more than 1000 armed opposition groups on the ground.

Angel Rabasa, a Senior Political Scientist at RAND and author of Eurojihad, estimates roughly 325,000 Muslims in Europe are at risk of becoming radicalized. But of this group, only 2,000 in Europe have actually gone to Syria for training. (In the U.S., the number is 12.)

How many would actually come back and do harm on the ground? Norwegian extremist expert Thomas Hegghammer says roughly 1% would be likely to return.

That means only 20 Muslims among more than 58 million who are living in Europe would be considered ‘very dangerous’.

So please don’t rant and rail at ‘all Muslims’ for the acts of so very few.

And don’t blame Muslims for ‘not doing something about it’.

When you spout hate rhetoric, you simply become a terrorist of a different kind.

If there is anything we can take from the attacks on Paris, let it be this: there are seriously sick people among us. So we need to do everything we can to protect each other.

Don’t blame and point fingers. Instead, stand up for love and support in the face of evil and destruction.

For in the end, this will be the only way out.

Namaste.

PS. Hate rhetoric left on my blog or my social media pages will be promptly removed.

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