Report: Muslim-American Terror Cases Decline in 2010 – CQ Homeland Security
After a year of lawmakers and security officials publicly expressing worry about the potential for U.S. citizens and residents to turn to extremist Islamist teachings, a new study has found a downward trend in Muslim-American terrorism in 2010.
The Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security — a collaboration between Duke University, the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and RTI International — recorded a spike in Muslim-American terrorism in 2009, when incidents jumped from an average of 14 per year to 40. But Charles Kurzman, a professor in UNC’s Sociology Department and one of the center’s faculty, said in a paper released Wednesday that the 2009 rise was largely attributable to 17 Somali-Americans who had joined the militant group al-Shabaab in Somalia. “The previous year may have been more of an aberration than a trend,” Kurzman wrote.
