Few would argue that the Islamic world and the Arab states were among the safest countries in the first and second trimesters of the twentieth century as a result of distancing itself from wars and international conflicts. Unfortunately, the opposite is true for the last trimester wherein political and ideological struggles have proliferated making the Islamic world, particularly the Middle East a bloody region with a heavy stench of death in every corner. Perhaps it is too much to associate such an unfortunate state of affairs solely to extremist ideologies that have invaded the Muslim world in the last third of the twentieth century while forgetting the role of foreign intervention and international policies that aggravate the situation and encourage rivalry between brothers. When we take a moment to reflect on the cost of extremist ideologies, we cannot be but saddened by the number of people victim to violence and terrorism for which many innocents have paid in blood.
The seed of extremism originated with Islamist groups at the beginning of the seventies marking the beginning stage of domestic violence. It passed through to the phase of violence that ravaged Algeria (claiming the lives of some 200,000 people due to terrorism) which led to the transformation of domestic violence to international terrorism. This led to the subsequent formation of al-Qaeda, which claimed for itself the right to defend Islam against its enemies, as if Muslims gave it the mandate to represent and defend them, and for which, ironically, Muslims have paid the cost in blood more than any other nation. A 2014 report by the Institute for Economics and Peace points out that from 2000 to 2013, Arabs and Muslims have been most affected by terrorism which has claimed the lives of more than 108,000 from 48,000 terrorist attacks, perpetrated mostly by extremist Islamic groups. In the year 2013 alone, more than 18,000 people were killed in 10,000 terrorist operations that took place in Muslim countries, with 80% of the victims from five Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Four terrorist organisations Daesh, Qaeda, Taliban, and Boko Haram, lead terrorism with 66% of total terrorist acts.
The report also indicates that deaths from terrorist acts increased by 80% in 2016 compared to 2015, with the greatest increase in Muslim countries and the majority of victims, are those who have witnessed the testimony of faith in Islam.
Referring to the year 2016, the Global Peace Index found that there ten Muslim countries are in the 15 least secure countries, among them Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen at the bottom of the list. In the Global Peace Index’s 2015 Annual Report, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan were at the bottom of the table. The security is declining in these countries due to several factors such as the Syrian regime’s treatment of its citizens, the Houthis in Yemen, and terrorist operations. Terrorist groups remain the dominant contributor to this tragedy whereby in 2014, 78% of deaths in the Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria was caused by terrorist acts.
In Iraq alone, the death toll in 2014 was three times the global total of victims of terrorism in 2000. This is the same Iraq that did not witness a single suicide attack before 2003 and was ranked among the safest countries. By 2014, Iraq had witnessed 1892 suicide attacks causing the deaths of nearly 20,000 people, most of whom were Muslim Iraqis. Statistics from the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, indicate that the number of American soldiers who have been killed by these operations did not exceed 200, representing 1% of victims of those operations. Does killing 200 US troops justify killing 20,000 innocent Iraqis, what madness justifies this!! These figures were for before the year 2014. After the emergence of Daesh, the madness took on new forms and the bloodshed increased significantly. Terrorist acts started to be counted according to month and not years. In March of this year (2016) 44 suicide attacks were perpetrated by Daesh, while the month of April recorded 36 suicide attacks. Pakistan had witnessed more than 486 suicide operations during the past 15 years which were unheard of before the 11th of September attacks where only a single event took place in 1987. Of course, it is Muslims who are paying almost 100% for these operations.
The predicament is worse in Nigeria where the terrorist organisation Boko Haram killed more than 6644 people in 2014 alone, the largest number of victims of terrorism in a single country in one year. Boko Haram and the newly formed Fulani Militia have so far claimed the lives of 14,000 people.
A terrifying statistic is that the global mortality rate as a result of terrorist acts rose from 8466 in 2008 to 32.715 in 2016 according to the Institute of Economy and Peace which is an increase of 286%. The frequency of terrorist acts increased by 80% from 2013 to 2014 with Daesh responsible for 50% of deaths due to terrorism in 2014. Terrorism has also contributed to the displacement of millions of Muslims. 20% of Somalia’s population live in shelters because of the excruciating terrorist acts perpetrated in its cities.
This is the blood bill being paid by Muslims as a result of this bloody frenzy.
As for the international level, statistics reveal that the number of countries that have suffered increases in human losses due to terrorist attacks with a minimum of 500 victims has increased from 5 countries to 11 countries in 2015. The pace of terrorist attacks throughout the world has also escalated whereby 67 countries in the last year have suffered at least one death as a result of terrorism compared to only 59 countries in 2013. The statistics published in the Global Terrorism Index by the Institute of Economy and Peace in November 2015 reveal the high death toll from terrorist attacks has increased nine times the amount since the beginning of this century. The number of terrorist operations is skyrocketing. While the number of attacks did not exceed 2000 at the start of the millennium, it reached 14,000 in 2014. The proportion of refugees because of such violence has reached levels unknown for the past 60 years.
After all these statistics, we see the true cost of violence and extremism. Its thirst for blood is never satisfied, it aggravates problems and causes Muslim countries to disintegrate. The question remains, to whose benefit is this madness?
*Dr.Tarik Ladjal is Professor of History at Effat University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
