numbers can lie

Submitted by Diane (United States), May 1, 2013 at 11:51

Usually I think very highly of Mr. Pipes' analyses, but in this case he is engaging in numerical sleight of hand unworthy of him. Firstly, 31 names is not a large enough population to be meaningful in demographic terms.

Secondly, there's a simple explanation for the absence of non-Muslim terrorists from the FBI most wanted list: perhaps they have already been apprehended. Obviously domestic terrorists like Ted Kaczynsk, Timothy McVeigh or Christopher Dorner -- as well as Muslim ones like the Tsarnaev brothers or Nidal Hassan – are easier for the FBI to capture than foreign ones hiding out in failed or enemy states. It would be more meaningful to look at the number of terrorists killed, captured or still at large, rather than only those still on the wanted list. It is out of character for Mr. Pipes to invite his readers to engage in racial or religious stereotyping, but for him to do so based on partial data is especially troubling.

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