Correction: Violent extremists estimate = 1/8 to 1/16 of the 1.3 billion population

Submitted by gwk (United States), Aug 16, 2008 at 08:35

Correction: In the previous, I used my best information gleaned from several years of reading on the subject to round out the number of radicalized muslim extremists as 1/8 of the total population, then used the round number of 100 million. Anyone in the know would have pointed out that 1/8 of the world's 1.3 billion muslims equals 162.5 million, not 100 million. Actually, the numbers are more guestimates, as in "How many violent muslim extremists are out there?", and the best answer being "Somewhere between 1/8 to 1/16 of the whole population".

8% of the world's muslim population would be 100 million. A pretty hefty number of hate-filled, violent lunatics inspired by dreams of paradise and islamic nirvana to contribute time, or money toward violent causes, but a relatively small percentage. As the world muslim population grows, some strategies will have to be developed to blunt the nihilistic efforts of 100 million plus extremists.

The first strategy is taking "political correctness" out of the discussion of violent islam.

The second is to tag violent extremists as lunatics and to show how they have infiltrated Western institutions, just as Dr. Pipes is attempting to do.

The third is to pare away the evil of propaganda from studies of muslim history, and to get the rest of the world to fully understand its cultural and historic lowpoints (as much as the high points are touted). Just what were the Wars of Apostasy about and how "loving" were those, and how vicious were they? What is this cultural business about muslims "loving death more than you love life" all about. UBL and other fringe lunatics have taken this line from Khalid bin Waleed as their theological anthem of suicidal hatred, and it needs to be advertised as a flaw in the social psychology of radical islam as much as mandatory charity is considered a virtue. And this business of charity to widows and orphans needs to be exposed as a payment mechanism to recruit mass murderers, and along with it the whole string of approved muslim charities that exploit islam's xenophobic fears and grandiose desires to become the world's dominant religion.

Beyond the information strategies, of which Dr. Pipes is doing an outstanding job at moving along, however, the non-Muslim world needs to take other steps to counter the 100 million plus violent extremists, that will get the explosives and weapons out of their hands, and which will minimize the effectiveness of their theological nihilism.

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