If 30 partisans per million is the Belgian ratio of Islamic militants, what is the US ratio and how would we measure that figure? It's not as easy as one might imagine. It could be an interesting study to compare the numbers of "islamo-fascists"(sic) with Christofascists or phalangists in the US since Islamofascism is the dominant meme at Fox News among other RW media.
Police raids in Belgium and the shoot-out in Verviers highlight the country's problem with Islamist militancy.
About 450 Belgians have gone to fight for Islamists in Syria or Iraq - a very high number compared with other European countries.
That figure includes those who were stopped before reaching their goal, those who were killed, those who returned and those still living in the war zone.
OTOH, So while...."the number of terrorist attacks around the world has increased dramatically; over 80% of all terrorism occurs in only 5 countries."
Link
On the EU side, there are initiatives taking shape immediately after the recent Paris attacks
'Speak, write, listen'
The EU's 28 foreign ministers met in Brussels ahead of a summit of leaders on 12 February.
After the meeting, Ms Mogherini said there projects would be established in collaboration with Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria and Gulf states.
The EU would step up intelligence-sharing both internally and with countries affected by terrorism, she said, and increase its work to prevent funding for terrorist networks.
The European Parliament, she added, would be asked to work on legislation covering the sharing of airline passenger data.
Ms Mogherini said new attaches at some EU foreign missions would be tasked with developing "security and anti-terror co-operation".
On the language initiative, she said: "I want immediately to improve our communication with the Arab-speaking populations both within the EU and in the world.
"We need to improve our capacity to speak Arabic, to write in Arabic and to listen to the messages that are coming from the Arab world."
Compare the
Global Terrorism Index with
The US Hate Map
Larry Steven McQuilliams,
November 28, 2014
Armed with a .22-caliber rifle and an assault rifle, Larry Steve McQuilliams, 49, fires more than 100 rounds at a police station, a Mexican consulate, a federal courthouse and a bank in downtown Austin, Texas, during the pre-dawn hours. He also tries to set the consulate on fire before he is shot dead by police. No one is hurt in the attack, which causes extensive damage to the buildings. In a rental van, police find multiple propane cans fashioned into homemade bombs and a map of 34 targets, including two churches. They also find Vigilantes of Christendom. The 1990 book inspired a white supremacist doctrine known as Phineas Priesthood, which finds divine justification for violence against those seen by such “priests” as enemies of God. The Austin police chief describes McQuilliams, a felon, as a “homegrown American terrorist trying to terrorize our people” and says a note found in the book “discusses his rank as a priest in his fight against anti-God people.” Statements made in police interviews also tie him to ultra-conservative groups with anti-Semitic, anti-LGBT and racist views.
As with most things reality is mediated by framing and re-framing data as public information for the usual motives.
One of the reasons that it’s difficult to define and count incidents of right-wing terrorism is that many right-wing extremists involved in incidents of terrorism are not prosecuted under terrorism statutes, but rather under other state and federal laws such as those governing weapons. There are also misunderstandings about what qualifies as terrorism, especially since the Department of Justice and the FBI do not publicly list domestic organizations involved in terrorism or terrorist plots, nor does any U.S. governmental agency release lists of terrorist incidents (although the State Department does compile a list of foreign groups judged to be terrorist)
Muslims represent about 1% of the US population, yet constitute more than 80% of terror convictions.
A recent report by the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security states that there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, people he described as "Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists" in the United States.
Terror's Measure (2013)
U.S. Muslim Extremism Not Rising
Alejandro J. Beutel, “Data on Post-9/11 Terrorism in the United States,” Muslim Public Affairs Council Policy Report, 2011
This study offers a statistical analysis of convictions in terrorism trials in the United States since 9/11 and an analysis of the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s post-9/11 Terrorism Incident Database, a list drawn from government, conservative and progressive sources. That database includes Muslim and non-Muslim violent extremists and includes those who originate inside and outside the U.S., but it is limited to plots specifically against people. The study concludes that there has been a general rise in violent extremism across ideologies since 9/11, but argues that there is little evidence of rising ideological extremism among Muslim Americans. According to the MPAC dataset, there have been 93 plots against the U.S. by U.S.-originated non-Muslims since 9/11, compared to 46 plots from U.S.- and foreign-originated Muslims. The study found that American Muslims helped prevent more than two out of every five Al Qaeda plots that have threatened the U.S. since 9/11.