CMV: I believe that the world has a clear enemy: Islam.

For the sake of argument, I'll focus on evidence that's more generous towards your point of view. Nearly 15% of Muslims in a 2013 Pew Research poll openly claimed that violence against civilians in defense of Islam could be justified. This is abhorrent. But it is not evidence that Islam is the global enemy. To understand why, look within the confines of the United States.

Watch any recent news coverage and you will see that race and racism are still an absolutely central issue in American politics. Just like many people cite Pew polls to point out ~1 in 5 Muslims are Ok w/ terrorism, similar stats are sometimes brought up after recent protests - and they are equally true. African-Americans make up a little more than 10% of the US, but more than 60% of those in prison. Quite simply, the data shows that African Americans are dramatically more likely to be convicted of crimes than their peers.

But enter statistics...this huge gap can be explained quite well by looking at people in terms of income rather than race. Remove race, and instead look at poorness, and the numbers don't actually change that much. Now consider how rich or poor you might gamble a person to be if you knew there were only the first or second generation of their family that had even been allowed to educate themselves (much less actually received a degree) in a broadly accepted way beyond their high school years.

For Islam we are in many ways right to be concerned. Terrorism attacks are on the rise. That is true. Death tolls are climbing and we see it on the news more than every. But in a similar sense we are placing a microscopic on a people and a religion that exists under the social and economic constraints of arbitrary borders carved out of the Ottoman empire. Those nations with a strong economy are generally ignored ( still waiting for calls to attack SA, UAE, Oman, Qatar), while those that are weak (Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan) are able to produce any number of ills. Today's world is more global and so are its ills. But to claim Islam is inherently at fault is to miss the bigger picture. Instead, the world is a precarious position that is conducive to Islamic extremism taking hold. This does not mean Islamic terrorism is the cause.

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