Migration Expert Says 50 to 140 Million Muslims Support Terrorism in Defense of Islam

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Professor Koopmans

A Dutch migration expert Ruud Koopmans said that 50 million radical Islamists accept the idea of violence in defense of their religion. He said his estimate is low and Pew research would indicate it could be as many as 140 million.

“The Muslim population world-wide is estimated to be 1.6 billion people,” the professor said. “This is a good one billion, half of them who depend on arch-conservative Islam, which places little emphasis on the rights of women, homosexuals and other believers. Of these 500 million, at least 50 million Muslims are willing to accept violence to defend Islam,” he said and the Daily Mail reported.

Ruud Koopmans is a professor of sociology and migration research at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the director of integration research at the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre.

He said he considers his own estimate of 50 million “an understatement”, citing studies that allegedly show eight percent of German Muslims agreed to the use of violence against “infidels”.

In an interview with RP-Online, he stated that not all 50 million would commit acts of violence but they would aid and abet.

“They support the radicals, they encourage them and provide them shelter or simply keep their mouths shut when they observe radicalisation”.

Objective, factual criticism of Islam is justified, he said. Blaming all Muslims would be bigotry, but it’s ignorant to ignore the facts about “fundamentalism as well as the acceptance of violence among Muslims and to defame those who report about it as Islamophobes.”

Based on an online Google translation, the professor said, “There is nothing wrong with foreign cultures, as long as they are looking for the connection to the majority in society and actually enrich our countries. But those who are here to spread their medieval beliefs, which are unfortunately widespread in Islamic countries, must be met with zero tolerance”.

The professor authored a study published in January 2015 in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. The study surveyed 9,000 European Muslims in 2008.

He found that Islam is not the problem, nor is it that the majority who have fundamentalist ideals. There is, however, a problem of fundamentalist Islam and violent behavior. Though it’s not the majority of Muslims, it’s widespread.

His study revealed, and a Pew Research study confirmed, that between 8% and 14% of European Muslims, depending on the country, supported violence. A figure of 140 million who support violence is conceivable.

“You’d rather be accusing me of understatement. If we were to take the 14 per cent of the pew study to the full-time Muslims worldwide, we would have 140 million violence supporters,” he said.

“In several Islamic countries, 14 per cent of local Muslims think suicide attacks against innocents are “sometimes” or “often” justified to defend Islam,” said Koopmans, citing the Pew Research Center study.

Islamic fundamentalism is not as marginal as people hoped.

The sociology professor strongly recommended that countries be far more careful about who they admit and ban those without papers.


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