They oppose terrorism against Muslims. Not so much against non-Muslims.
We’re told that most Muslims oppose Islamic terrorism and that it’s only a tiny fringe of radicals and extremists who practice “radical Islamic terrorism” (as opposed to‘moderate Islamic terrorism’ in which the moderate participants moderately detonate bombs, moderately stab civilians and moderately ram cars into pedestrians) and that their actions don’t reflect Islam.
Even those who correctly identify the roots of Islamic terrorism in the Koran and Islamic teachings still firmly insist that most Muslims oppose terrorism and only a minority support it.
Is that really true? The answer is that it depends on which Islamic terrorism we’re talking about.
There are four categories of Islamic terrorism.
Caliphate Terrorism – These are terrorist attacks carried out by groups like ISIS which claim that their leader is the Caliph of all of Islam and Muslims who refuse to obey him may be killed.
Islamic Terrorism Against Muslim Countries – Domestic terrorism by Muslim terrorists fighting to replace an insufficiently Islamic government, e.g. Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda.
Islamic Terrorism Against Western Non-Muslim Countries – Terrorist attacks against America or Europe, where large numbers of Muslims live and can become collateral damage.
Islamic Terrorism Against a Non-Muslim Religion – This includes Islamic terrorism targeting a country seen as defined by a non-Muslim religion such as Israel or India and it also includes Muslim violence inside Muslim countries against non-Muslim minorities such as Christians in India or Hindus in Bangladesh or violence against Christians in mixed countries such as Nigeria.
Most Muslims oppose ISIS and ‘Caliphate’ terrorism directed at Muslims, smaller numbers of Muslims oppose Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood violence that is directed at Muslim governments, significant numbers of Muslims support Al Qaeda terrorism directed at Western countries and majorities of Muslims support violence directed at non-Muslim religious groups.
Qatar’s Doha Institute (Qatar is a state sponsor of Hamas) released a poll after the Oct 7 attacks which found that 67% of those polled in 16 Arab countries supported the attacks and 69% supported Hamas. That same year, 1 in 3 Muslims in America admitted to supporting Hamas, while by 2026, 44% came out ofthe Hamas closet. Since supporting Hamas is still illegal in America, unlike the Middle East, this is likely to be an undercounting in the U.S.
Many insist that Israel is different and the large Muslim support for terror there isn’t reflective of any broader Muslim backing for terrorism, but Muslim support for terrorism in Israel is actually consistent with Muslim support for terrorism against non-Muslim religious groups.
For example, a survey found that 53% of Pakistanis supported Islamic terrorism against Hindus by Lashkar-e-Taiba, but only 34% supported similar terrorist attacks by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. What was the difference? Lashkar-e-Taiba is covertly backed by the Pakistani government and only targets Hindus, but does not kill Pakistani Muslims, while Tehrik-i-Taliban also carries out attacks against the Pakistani government and kills other Muslims.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has made a point of distinguishing between non-Muslims and Muslims while carrying out its massacres, asking tourists in Kashmir about their religion before killing them in the recent 2025 massacre in Kashmir. This is why so many Muslims support it.
Lashkar-e-Taiba’s position is that it is dedicated to wiping out Hindus and Jews, but that it will not harm fellow Muslims who ‘profess the faith.’ That is enough of a difference for its level of support among Pakistanis to climb from a third to a majority. And this embodies the gap in Muslim support between terror attacks against Muslims and against non-Muslims.
Here’s another example.
In 2004, 67% of Jordanians were supportive of Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq (ISIS) and only 10% considered it a terrorist group. In 2005, Al Qaeda in Iraq bombed several hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing 59 people, including a wedding party, and the backlash was so severe that its leader released a tape claiming that they had actually been targeting “Zionist intelligence” only to somehow blow up a wedding.
Al Qaeda’s approval rating in Jordan, after it killed fellow Sunni Muslims, dropped from 67% to 20%, and the number who considered it a terrorist group shot up from 10% to 48%.
Did Jordanian Arabs, who are 97% Muslim, fundamentally rethink their support for Islamic terrorism? Not very much. After Al Qaeda killed fellow Muslims, the number of Jordanians who considered Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks to be terrorism rose from 35% to 61%, but support for Hamas only fell from 86% to 73%. The number opposed to killing civilians in an ‘occupied’ Muslim country rose from 77% to 92%, but many supported terrorists killing non-Muslims.
“We ask Allah to have mercy on the Muslims, who we did not intend to target, even if they were in hotels which are centers of immorality,” the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq apologized.
The central issue was not terrorism: it was terrorism against Muslims. Or, more specifically, Sunni Muslims, since Al Qaeda in Iraq had already been bombing Shiite mosques in Iraq.
By 2014, with a clearer distinction between Al Qaeda and ISIS (Osama bin Laden had taken pains to distance Al Qaeda from the ISIS targeting of fellow Muslims), only 44% of Jordanians considered Al Qaeda to be a terrorist group, while 62% thought ISIS was a terrorist group.
So do the majority of Muslims oppose Islamic terrorism? Only when it kills Muslims.
Islamic terrorism is not an absolute for Muslims. Support for it or opposition to it depends on who is carrying it out, why and who the victims are. Islam is both highly legalistic and tribal, and support for Islamic terrorist attacks depends on clerical approval of particular groups and their tactics as well as whether they are attacking a hated non-Muslim group or fellow Muslims.
The Muslim terrorist groups with the broadest approval from Muslims are religiously nationalistic, attacking a non-Muslim religious group with the aim of expelling them from land claimed by Muslims, such as Israel and India, in purported defense of an aggressive Muslim colony, such as Kashmir or Gaza. Such attacks most closely parallel the founding genocides carried out by Mohammed in the early days of Islam, and are the least controversial among Muslims even when terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hamas kill women and children.
Devout Muslims are more drawn to Islamic terrorist groups seeking to firmly establish Sharia law by seizing power in Muslim countries, e.g. Al Qaeda and ISIS: however such groups are controversial among many Muslims who remain loyal to their governments, worry about being targeted and don’t necessarily want to live in a proper Islamic state. Al Qaeda initially won a good deal of Muslim support by focusing its attacks on America even though its larger aim was toppling the Saudi monarchy. Osama bin Laden had built a reputation as a devout global Jihadist who was fighting the Russians and then the Americans. The Iraq War, more than anything else, destroyed Al Qaeda’s reputation among Muslims and birthed ISIS.
Many Muslims are not at all certain that they want to live in the ISIS version of an Islamic State. They are much more comfortable with Islamic terrorists focused on killing non-Muslims in defense of Islamic expansionism than they are with the idea of toppling their own governments. ‘Good’ Muslims terrorists distinguish between Muslims and non-Muslims: another reason that some Muslim terrorist groups make a point of sparing non-Muslims during terrorist attacks by quizzing them about Islam as Somalia’s Al-Shabaab did during the Kenya mall attack.
An Islamic terrorist attack in Israel or India isn’t terrorism. An attack in America or the UK might or might not be. While an attack in a Muslim country is almost always seen as terrorism. To Muslims, targets matter more than tactics. Rather than opposition to terrorism, they oppose being terrorized. And they are quite willing to support Islamic terrorism as non-Muslims die.
The majority of Muslims don’t oppose Islamic terrorism. They don’t even view attacks like September 11 or Oct 7 as representing ‘terrorism’ until they end up on the wrong side of them.
somehistory says
Some years ago, obl was quoted as calling his fellow terrorists “freedom fighters.” Others of his ilk have claimed the same thing.
The muzzie definition of terrorism is totally different from the definition supplied by the FBI.
The FBI basically defines terrorism as acts by persons or groups against the public in order to force governments to change policy..
muzzies, on the other hand, see all actions against them as terrorism. So, they then see the actions of their fellow muzzies as *resistance* and *justice*
As reported by Mr. Greenfield, they only see actions committed by muzzies against themselves as terrorism. Such as the attacks of one group bombing a barracks where muzzies are saluting satan because they don’t believe those inside have it all exactly right.
All devout muzzies are in favor of the warfare….in all of its forms…because they want the rest of us subjugated to their false god and worshipping their fake poophet.
somehistory says
“Newly released footage captures aftermath of deadly suicide attack on Pakistan mosque
At least 16 people were killed and 57 wounded after a suicide attacker rammed an explosive car into a police facility in northwest Pakistan as officers and their families were praying in a m…’
My guess….a muzzie was driving the car.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/newly-released-footage-captures-aftermath-of-deadly-suicide-attack-on-pakistan-mosque/vi-AA2cwd0t?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6aadac10327b4fcca1beb07cdb83dfb2&ei=21
Taffy says
Hmmm. These Muzzies are very shortsighted. Every last Gazan was dancing right after October 7th. But, reprisal by Israel was guaranteed, and it was predictable that Israel would level Gaza, leave its infrastructure in ruins, and kill lots and lots of Hamas members with dead Gazan civilians sprinkled in the mix. Unlike raiding a village in Nigeria and killing the priest, his congregants and burning down the church, raiding Israel has its consequences.
Pro tip: Don’t start up with a country that has air supremacy over you!
Wellington says
Frankly, I don’t care if some Muslims sincerely and honestly oppose terrorism (and many of those who state they do I don’t believe—but I digress). Their damn religion doesn’t oppose terrorism, it is steeped in calls for it (e.g., Sura 47:4), and, in the final analysis, the ideology in question, and not what many of its adherents think and do, should always remain paramount in any assessment in this regard.
One can find some Muslims who are just cultural Muslims or along these lines and they are good people in their daily life. One can also find some Christians who are pro forma Christian or along these lines and they are terrible people. But all this is secondary because what Islam states and intends for all the world is inimical to very good things like freedom and equality under the law and so its most “devout” followers are a menace to these very good things. By contrast, what Christianity states and intends for all the world is not inimical to the very good things I have already mentioned and even Christianity’s most devout followers are virtually without exception not a menace to these.
As an example, take Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham. He is a sincere Christian, as sincere as one can get, but how is he a menace to freedom et al.? He clearly is not. Indeed, he a great ally of liberty. Ditto for someone like the recently deceased Pope Benedict XVI. Yet one can find a score of Muslims who are mortal enemies of freedom and equality under the law—and other good things. People like the (thankfully) deceased Osama bin Laden and scores of imams across the Islamic world, including in many Western nations, have been inveterate enemies of liberty and true equality among all peoples.
Ideology is paramount. Miss this and one misses a lot. Would be deuce difficult to miss anything more.
Tony says
Islam’s Muslims are a greater terror than Allah against Non-Muslims as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 9:5, 29, 41, 111; 49:15, etc.). Allah in Qur’an 59:13 says, “You[Muslims] are a greater terror in their chests than Allah. This is because they[Jews & Christians] are people who do not understand.”
Public funding is a privilege that should not be granted to organizations that are against the US Constitution. Islam, a Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Enterprise, is against the US Constitution for Muslim funding, teaching, and promoting discrimination, hatred, rape, segregation, violence, and terrorism. Allah in Qur’an 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah, so they kill and are killed…”. Ultimately, Allah desires to fill hell with Non-Muslims(Qur’an 7:18; 11:119; 32:13; 98:6, etc.).
ploome says
jihad is obligatory and “terrorism” is required by muslims as instructed in the koran
2:216
Fighting has been made obligatory upon you ˹believers˺, though you dislike it. Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.
3:151
We will cast horror into the hearts of the disbelievers for associating ˹false gods˺ with Allah—a practice He has never authorized. The Fire will be their home—what an evil place for the wrongdoers to stay!
any muslims who denies this is, of course, naturally lying
why on earth, is this cult allowed in country….actually worse than communim
Tim gallagher says
I think all Muslims want to impose Islam on the entire human race and they couldn’t give a damn about terrorist attacks and all the other evil shit that their fellow Muslims do in trying to advance their goal of imposing Islam. I don’t think any Muslim should be trusted. Muslims are taught to have a rotten, hate filled view of all non Muslims. There is no chance of getting along peacefully with Muslims. It is them or us. The people who think that we can get along peacefully with Muslims are fools. All Muslims want us all to become Muslims. That’s their evil supremacist dream.