The vast majority of people who believe in God are appalled by terrorism and we should no more be denouncing the Muslim community today than we did the Irish Catholic one forty years ago.
The world watched with horror as our TV screens showed the killing of at least 253 people in Sri Lanka, as locals went to their Sunday churches and holidaymakers relaxed in their hotels. This came shortly after the equally horrific mass murder of Muslims at prayers in New Zealand mosques.
All around the world people fear the rise of terrorism and increasingly people believe the real threat comes from the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. But the truth is Islamist terror incidents have been reducing across the world and particularly in the West since 2014. The decline of Islamist terror incidents has been matched by a surge of terror attacks by far-right racists which make up a third of terror attacks around the world.
Most people will find this surprising because our media focuses on Islamist terror rather than that of the far-right. In a recent report published by the Guardian, Scott Atran, who is a founder of the Centre of the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at the University of Oxford, revealed that attacks by Muslims received over four times more coverage in the media in the US than other terrorist incidents.
Thank you for this write-up Ken.
If you are interested in discussing philosophy and in some ways.. religion, I am creating a website that will soon be live on:
~ @chrisrice