Islamic Extremist Terrorist Attacks Are Not a Conspiracy Theory: Here’s the Real Data

Liberals and Democrats would have you believe that diversity is our strength and that Islamic extremist terrorism is merely a right-wing conspiracy theory. They also claim that other groups commit as many, or even more, terrorist attacks. The numbers tell a very different story.

According to Fondapol, a French think tank, between 1979 and May 2021, at least 48,035 Islamist terrorist attacks took place worldwide, causing more than 210,000 deaths. The overwhelming majority of this violence has occurred in Muslim-majority countries: 86.3% of attacks happened there, accounting for 88.9% of all deaths, over 222,000 lives lost.

ISIS alone has been responsible for enormous casualties. Between 2002 and 2015, groups affiliated with the Islamic State carried out more than 4,900 attacks, killing over 33,000 people and injuring 41,000. Using machine learning analysis, researchers attributed another 15,000 deaths to ISIS since 2007, bringing the total death toll to about 40,000.

Since 2014, Europe has endured more than 20 fatal Islamist terrorist attacks. France was hit hardest between January 2015 and July 2016, suffering eight major incidents, including the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, the November 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 dead, and the July 2016 Nice truck attack that killed 86. In 2017, the United Kingdom saw three major attacks within four months: the Westminster attack, the Manchester Arena bombing, and the London Bridge attack. According to Europol, 62 people were killed in ten completed jihadist attacks across the European Union that year.

Outside Europe, some of the deadliest incidents were even more devastating. In 2018, the Taliban attack on Ghazni, Afghanistan, killed 466 people after assailants armed with mortars, explosives, and firearms stormed the city. That same year, ISIL was responsible for 1,328 deaths worldwide.

In 2019, the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka killed 270 people, including at least 45 foreign nationals and five Americans, in coordinated ISIS-related suicide bombings targeting churches and luxury hotels.

In 2021, the Islamic State captured the town of Palma in Mozambique during a 13-day occupation, killing 1,193 people and abducting another 209, for a total of 1,402 victims. This stands as one of the three deadliest Islamist attacks since September 11, 2001.

In 2023, Hamas launched the October 7 attacks on Israeli territory, killing at least 1,195 people, injuring more than 3,400, and kidnapping 251. This was the second deadliest Islamist terrorist event since 9/11.

In 2024, ISIS-K carried out the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow, killing 149 and injuring over 600 concertgoers—the deadliest terrorist attack on Russian soil since the 2004 Beslan school siege.

In 2025, large-scale massacres of religious minorities were reported in Syria. In March, at least 1,426 Alawite civilians were killed in coastal regions. In July, nearly 1,000 people were killed in Suwayda province, including 588 Druze civilians, 182 of whom were summarily executed by regime forces.

In Africa, the toll has risen sharply. Fatalities linked to Islamist violence jumped 20 percent in the past year, reaching more than 23,000 deaths, a record high. Boko Haram alone has caused over 38,000 deaths in Borno State, Nigeria. In Somalia, al-Shabaab was tied to 6,225 deaths in 2022, up from 2,606 the year before.

South Asia has faced equally devastating losses. Pakistan recorded 490 attacks in 2023 that killed 689 people. In 2024, terrorism-related fatalities in Pakistan surged 45 percent, the largest year-on-year increase in a decade.

The countries most affected by Islamist terrorism include Afghanistan (17,075 attacks), Somalia (10,768), Iraq (8,209), Nigeria (3,950), Syria (3,421), and Pakistan (2,635). Together, these figures show the scale of devastation and the global reach of Islamist extremism.

Liberals claim that Christian white supremacists are the biggest terrorist threat, but in reality, they are a very small fringe group with no elected officials, very few protests, very limited activity, and few attacks. From 2015 to 2025 alone, Islamic extremist groups have killed over 200,000 people across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

By comparison, white extremists in the United States have been responsible for roughly 520 deaths over the past 30 years. Any attempt to equate the two is grossly misleading. And because white supremacists are often linked to gang activity, the people they killed were largely white and also involved in crime.

Beyond the staggering death toll, Islamic extremist groups have destabilized entire nations. ISIS at its peak controlled 100,000 square kilometers across Iraq and Syria. The Taliban now controls Afghanistan. Boko Haram has torn apart Nigeria and its neighbors. Al-Shabaab continues to dominate parts of Somalia. These organizations have carved out caliphates, imposed parallel governments, and altered the political landscapes of multiple countries. White Christian extremists, by contrast, have never seized territory, built parallel states, or destabilized nations.

The rhetoric is also starkly different. Islamic extremist rallies routinely feature chants of “Death to America,” calls for the destruction of Israel, demands for Sharia law in Western countries, and open incitement to violence against Christians and Jews. White Christian nationalists typically frame themselves as trying to “save” America rather than destroy it, and they do not organize mass rallies calling for genocide.

The statistical evidence is overwhelming: Islamic extremism represents a global threat on a vastly greater scale than any other ideology, measured by deaths, territorial control, and destabilizing power.

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