A Difference Of Definition
13th April 2016
It is becoming increasingly obvious that reporting on Islamic terrorism has become politicized. In short, the data is increasingly unreliable. This is most obvious in Israel where the Palestinian leadership praises those who carried out attacks in Israel similar to the ones that recently took place in Paris and Brussels because the victims were Israelis and most Arabs are taught that Israel is evil and killing Israelis is not. Yet the Palestinian leaders condemn the Paris and Brussels attacks in large part because European nations provide much of the foreign aid that keeps Palestinian government going and many Europeans agree that Israel is evil and must be destroyed. This is only one of many similar situation around the world. What is terrorism and what is not is often a matter of political, ethnic or religious convictions (“one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighters”). Thus the data on Islamic terrorist activity referred to by governments is not consistent. Even in the West, some government downplay obvious acts of Islamic terrorists and reclassify them as “workplace violence.” Even the United States has done this.