Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Why some countries have more terrorist attacks than others?

fusso - 3-10-2018 at 06:24

Middle East is definitely the most targeted region due to majority are muslims, and most terrorists are also muslims.
911 is probably the most famous event. Happened in the strongest richest country. And UK has suffered the most among EU countries. But I haven't heard much from the more eastern parts of the world. Why terrorists target these specific countries but not others?

JJay - 3-10-2018 at 06:43

I don't think Islam is really a sufficient cause of terrorist attacks.

The UK has a history of terrorism caused by nationalist Irish militants. They actually assassinated a member of the royal family at one point, and they set off lots of bombs.

A quick look at a few papers suggests that democracy, population, political conflict, and history of terrorism are the strongest causal factors. Totalitarian dictatorships don't have much of a problem with it because terrorism is carried out for political reasons. Obviously, highly populated countries are more likely to contain terrorists. I'm not exactly sure why the history of terrorism in a country would make a difference, but I don't doubt that it does.

MJ101 - 3-10-2018 at 08:18

@JJay: I totally agree.

In the USA, we have our own brand of terrorists. Timothy McVey was not a muslim, yet he perpetrated a terrible act of terrorism.
He used ANFO, but we've had terror attacks perpetrated with both guns and aircraft.

With the exception of a select few, those who know how to create these weapons have a strong sense of ethics and a healthy respect for life.
Especially for the lives of others.

unionised - 3-10-2018 at 11:28

Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Why terrorists target these specific countries but not others?


I can't see anything that rules out provocation as an explanation.

fusso - 3-10-2018 at 12:38

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Why terrorists target these specific countries but not others?


I can't see anything that rules out provocation as an explanation.
Then how did these countries provoke the terrorists?

unionised - 3-10-2018 at 13:01

Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Why terrorists target these specific countries but not others?


I can't see anything that rules out provocation as an explanation.
Then how did these countries provoke the terrorists?

It's a bit late so I will give you a chance to look that up for yourself.
I'm off to bed.

clearly_not_atara - 3-10-2018 at 13:21

Studies show that the most important factor that influences an individual to commit terrorist acts is the perceived support among their peers for these acts. Therefore, unfortunately, one of the most important mediating factors for terrorism is a country's preference for individual freedom, which is not something most Western countries are willing to compromise on.

Many people may find this hard to reconcile with the high prevalence of terrorism in Muslim countries, but this is based on a misunderstanding of Islam. Historically, most countries in the Middle East were relatively cosmopolitan and accepting, a consequence of its being "between" the East and West -- any overland trade from Europe to India/China must cross through Iran, the Caspian Sea or the Ural Mountains, and Iran is by far the easiest.

For example, Zionism largely began in the mid-19th century, when Jews from Europe started moving to Palestine. They did not experience persecution at first, being a minority in a society that was used to minorities -- Arab anti-Semitism only began in earnest when the Jews became a majority in large parts of Palestine and began to influence the region's politics. By contrast, when Spain was liberated from Islamic occupation in the 15th century, the new Christian kings of Spain promptly expelled the Jewish population that had been allowed to live there by the Moors.

The echoes of this freedom can still be heard today: marijuana use is widespread in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan, but much more rare in China. Al-Jazira, a Qatari news network, regularly annoys the leadership of the other Middle Eastern countries where it broadcasts. This would be unheard of in East Asia. Social media and the Internet caught on quickly in the Middle East and contributed to the Arab Spring.

All of this allows Islamic terrorists to share stories, images and videos of their atrocities via social media, with ineffective supervision by corporate moderators who face a language barrier and governments that don't understand technology. They are propped up by highly-paid radical Islamic preachers on Al-Jazira, who resemble Jerry Falwell in a turban. None of this would fly in China, Japan or Korea with their authoritarian Confucian legacy, or in India, Malaysia or Singapore with the colonial restrictions they inherited from the British.

The enemy is so hard to look at because of how much it looks like us.

Magpie - 3-10-2018 at 17:47

Italy doesn't have much terrorism because the Mafia takes care of troublemakers as they are bad for business.

streety - 3-10-2018 at 19:32

Is no-one going to reference their sources?

Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Middle East is definitely the most targeted region due to majority are muslims, and most terrorists are also muslims.


This seems like a logical fallacy. We can examine the hypothesis.

Firstly, do you know how the Middle East is defined? I had a rough idea but I was not sure so checked. Afghanistan is not included. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East

If terrorism occurs by virtue of a population being Muslim then the number of terrorist incidents in a country should correlate with the percentage of the population that is Muslim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country lists countries by Muslim population

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incidents_... gives the number of terrorist incidents by country.
Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
911 is probably the most famous event. Happened in the strongest richest country. And UK has suffered the most among EU countries. But I haven't heard much from the more eastern parts of the world. Why terrorists target these specific countries but not others?


I am not sure the claim about the UK is correct. It is not clear over what period you are looking but if we look at the incidence of radical Islam associated terrorism since 9/11 then France and Spain have higher death tolls.
Code:
Country Deaths Injuries Years of major incidents France 244 824 2015,2015,2016 Spain 216 2202 2004,2017 UK 90 1082 2005,2017,2017 Belgium 35 340 2016 Germany 12 56 2016


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Europe#Deadliest_...

Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_terrorist_incidents_... there are some countries from Asia with a large number of terrorist incidents - India, Philippines, Thailand, China, Myanmar. Part of the reason there appear to be less is they don't get the same coverage of incidents in other countries. When I have seen them mentioned in the media recently it has been after the government of the country has cracked down on an entire ethnic minority in response, the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Uyghurs in China

learningChem - 3-10-2018 at 23:05

Quote:
most terrorists are also muslims.


LMAO!! New low for this fine forum.

Biggest terrorist organization on the planet is the US military.

RogueRose - 3-10-2018 at 23:53

Quote: Originally posted by learningChem  
Quote:
most terrorists are also muslims.


LMAO!! New low for this fine forum.

Biggest terrorist organization on the planet is the US military.



I have to second this and being a US citizen we don't call it terrorism, we call it "spreading democracy" or "liberating a country from tyranny", and for a US citizen to call the Military a "terrorist organization" is to bring the wrath of many down upon you, especially the media if they get a hold of your comments.

There are some countries not on the list that MUST be included such as:
India
China
Pakistan
Democratic republic of Congo
South Africa
Brazil
Venezuela
Columbia
Nicaragua
El Salvador
Mexico
Russia
Thailand
Myanmar/Burma
Somolia
Yemen
Rawanda
Libya
Israel/Gaza/West Bank
Spain
Balkans (not so much recently)
Sudan
Kenya
Nigeria
Ethiopia
Many other African countries

All of these countries have had either terrible terrorist attacks or ongoing terrorist attacks by one or more organizations

I think the biggest reason that the muslims are blamed for terroism is because they are truly "freedom fighters", fighting against occupying forces who are there to protect the multi-nationals who are extracting their natural resources w/o compensation to the populace of the country (sure the political big-wigs get paid off and skim, but 99.9% of the population doesn't get a dime, especially in oil rich Nigeria)

On top of the extraction of oil and the countries being forced to accept the Petro Dollar (USD - which is another reason for some wars and terrorism) many absolutely HATE, DESPISE, etc the fact that Israel exists (illegally I might add as the Balfour declaration was concieved under fraudulent circumstances, broken promises and all other kinds of underhandedness which is convienently swept under the rug and forgotten).

The "Free Palistine" and 2 state solution has been an issue since Isreal was formed and there really wasn't terrorism until about 1970 from Muslims and I think that was all encouraged and funded by Western intelligence agencies (CIA, MI6, Froggies, Mossad, even SIS) They needed a new boogey man b/c they knew that communism was on it's last legs and they knew they could merge the religious fanaticism with communistic ideals and bring about a new "common" enemy which was the Muslim world, or at least '"Radical muslims". Make no mistake, this has ALL been manufactured from day 1 of the war on terror.

Now the smaller terrorist attacks are often motivated by local political issues but some also have the backing of islamic groups (who are also funded by CIA/MI6/Mossad black money) like Boko-Haram. Whenever some ties (to front companies of intelligence agencies) by members of these terrorist groups start to show up the members either commit a suicide attack or are killed in an attack or killed while building a bomb for an attack (accidentally of course) or straight up drone stiked in the middle of a crowded market or at a funeral full of people. Yeah, who'da terrorist...?

I think there are VERY, VERY few terrorist attacks that do not have some kind of connection to a government agency or handler - it could be a secret agency, but still I don't think they are "organic" activities.



Most interesting thing so far about CIA & Terrorism are links to Chrissy Ford - Kavanaugh's accuser
If you dig into Christine Blasey Ford's background (MAJOR CIA ties) your head would explode! Her grandfather was CIA "paymaster" and her brother works for 3 CIA front companies on top of her running a CIA internship program at Stanford university (the Stanford Research Institute) - which is the program that treated a homeless bag lady (at the SRI in Cali) in late 1970's with massive doses of dissassociatives, hypnotics and psychadelics and hallucinogens (for 3 years) - When released this lady tracked down Chrissy Ford's grandfather (still working for CIA) and murdered him and his secretary then turned herself into the police while being in a childlike state. The man how started the CIA research/internship program (named Ingles), when he died, Chrissy took over the position not long after - the same org that trained her grandfather's killer! On top of that, her grandfather was a HUGE money launderer (owned the company now call Goldline - advertises on conservative talk radio shows) for most of Latin america, Asia and Africa and was under investigation by Reagan's organized crime task force that brought down the New York mob (Gambino, Gotti, etc) This really is a truly WILD story, if you want to read more about it look up the name "Nicholas Deak" that is Chrissy Ford's grandfather (or Great grandfather - the whole family is CIA/gov tied to the bone). This Deak guy funded most of the Latin American "terrorist" organizations and wars!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Deak

j_sum1 - 4-10-2018 at 02:03

We do have a politics policy for a reason.
Before this starts to go sour...