Paul.L
Firstly, I'm not a leftist apologist but I'm also not one to believe everything that comes out of the mouth of "our Washington Correspondent" either.

Historically, the resurgence of Militant Islam is the direct result of failed US policy in Iran and the aftermath of their involvement in Afghanistan.

Secondly, it's an impressive looking list. Of all these, only 4 existed before 1990, 7 started in the 90’s and the rest are no more than 7 years old. Why are these periods significant?

According to the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base (funded through the US Department of Homeland Security and directed by the United States Congress to conduct “research into the social and political causes and effects of terrorism”), these are the actual statistics from 1968 to 2008 -

1. Officially recognised terrorist incidents by Group Classification
CLASSIFICATION / INCIDENTS
Anarchist / 122
Anti-Globalization / 217
Communist/Socialist / 3848
Environmental / 83
Leftist / 435
Nationalist/Separatist / 5021
Other / 300
Racist / 41
Religious / 2833
Right-Wing Conservative / 127
Right-Wing Reactionary / 14

2. Number of Terrorist Groups per Geographic Region -
REGION / NUMBER OF GROUPS
Africa / 128
East & Central Asia / 24
Eastern Europe / 50
Latin America & the Caribbean / 140
Middle East / Persian Gulf / 283
North America / 79
South Asia / 171
Southeast Asia & Oceania / 68
Western Europe / 312
TOTAL = 1255

3. Incidents by top ten recognised groups (discounting "unknown") in descending order of quantity.
GROUP / INCIDENTS
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) / 656
Hamas / 581
Taliban / 435
Basque Fatherland and Freedom (ETA) / 418
Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) / 403
National Liberation Army (Colombia) / 296
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) / 257
al-Fatah / 233
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) / 233
Communist Party of India-Maoist / 221

Only four of these are Muslim and Hamas is an officially political-only group, despite some members being named Mohammed.

Also, the last terrorist attack on Australian soil was in July 2001 when an abortion clinic security guard was shot.

The fact that the comments on this discussion have become so anti-Islam increases the fear that there is little hope for peace in the future without one governed by Pax Americanian missile diplomacy.

Further, because such a situation renders the need for Iran to be militarily occupied by the US in the future with alled little Israel becoming even more scientifically combatantly nuclearly advanced besides, gives a picture of a future world not very nice to exist in.

Without a genuine attempt to find a way to share the blame between societies in this world, reckon it makes one glad near the end of one's life that he may have experienced the best of it.

Cheers, BB - WA

I consider that ABC has been so dumbed now that it is simply a parrot of the Rudd government. Switched on to listen to early news on
ABC radio this morning and the big news, the priority item was---plastic bags being given the boot by the Minister for Plastic Bags who gave an indepth report on same.
Who ever is responsible for the news should be given the sack, we listen to hear state, Federal and world items- we got plastic bags.
This is the low standards the ABC has now descended to. What next?
The infertility of fleas in the Arctic?

Rache,

Once again you have proven the old adage “there are lies, damn lies and statistics”. Here are the figures I found at MITP.

Total casualties including dead and wounded 1990 – 2008. Of these you can see that 80% of the most dangerous terrorist organizations are Islamic. Three out of the top 4 are Islamic extremists and Aum Shrinyionko have since been destroyed.

al-Qaeda 12328
al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers 5654
Aum Shinrikyo / Aleph 5012
Hamas 3509
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) 3167
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 2061
Taliban 1886
Islamic State of Iraq 1753
Ansar al-Sunnah Army 1741
Riyad us-Saliheyn Martyrs' Brigade 1680
al-Fatah 1341
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) 1286
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade 1075
Hezbollah 1058
Mujahideen Shura Council 1058
Liberation Army Fifth Battalion 1048
Jemaah Islamiya (JI) 960
Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) 722
Basque Fatherland and Freedom (ETA) 576
Islamic Movement for Change 574
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) 196

Rache > “Hamas is an officially political-only group. “

Really? That’s the most ridiculous thing you have said so far. Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya or "Islamic Resistance Movement". Ami Isseroff on MidEast web states that the acronym is also the Arabic word for "zeal. The 1988 Hamas Covenant (or Charter) states that the organization's goal is to "raise the banner of God over every inch of Palestine," in order to establish an Islamic Republic.A quote from the charter ”There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas Hamas is without a doubt an Islamic organization.

Rache > “Also, the last terrorist attack on Australian soil was in July 2001 when an abortion clinic security guard was shot.”

So I guess the police needn’t have arrested Jack Roche or Abdul Benbrika? Benbrika and his mates were aiming to kill a thousand people at the football but I suppose the anti abortionists are more dangerous. Your lame attempts to suggest that Islamo fascism is not a global movement are preposterous and a denial of the obvious.

“Historically, the resurgence of Militant Islam is the direct result of failed US policy in Iran and the aftermath of their involvement in Afghanistan.”

This doesn’t sound like “history” to me, but merely a subjective statement.

Surely it is a matter of opinion, isn’t it?

Also, just a cursory glance at the few references you drew from the “MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base” shows an overwhelming large number of the incidents have been committed by Islamic Terrorists. (1506)

This, of course has been expanded by Paul to show that the Islamics are indeed the most prolific of terrorists.

Looks like you are being a bit disingenuous here.

Paul.L
I specifically said INCIDENTS, not casualties. One indicates the relative amount of activity, the other indicates their effectiveness.

There are other international terrorist groups just as active (if not more so) than the current Muslim ones.

Hamas is a militant organisation and now a legitimate political party, whose stated aim is to restore the state of Palestine, not to spread Islam throughout the world.

I also said the last INCIDENT in Australian, not any arrests.

Froggie,

Modern Militant Islam (it's always been there but only became a significant Western problem in the last couple of decades) is said to have begun with formation of an Islamic Republic by the Ayatollah in Iran. In 1953 the US helped depose Prime Minister Mossadegh who had tried to nationalise the oil industry and put the Shah in control. (Much like they did with Saddam in Iraq).

His oppressive regime literally killed of all the moderate opposition and after his overthrow, Khomeni was the only one left who could take control.

The other source of profound Muslim resentment toward the West was the US treatment of the Afghanis after their war with the soviets. Despite their assurances that they would help with reconstruction and assistance after the war, the Americans just walked away (known as "the great betrayal") leaving people at the mercy of Mujahideen warlords until the Taliban took control. This fostered deep anger all through the Middle East.

Incidently, Reagan was a great supporter of the Taliban and heaped great praise on them at the Whitehouse - comparing them to the American Founding Fathers and paying them tens of millions of dollars, right up to a couple of months before the invasion.

Once again I'm not trying to deny the existence of Muslim terrorists but the media coverage of much of the last few years has not been particularly balanced or accurate. One would imagine that there are millions of them waiting to come swarming over the rest of the world, like a huge army of orcs coming out of Mordor. Terrorism is a tactic, not a specific thing.