How Big a Threat?

doi:10.1126/science.298.5601.2125c

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Islam and terrorism (not to scale).

SOURCE: NRC

A new report^* on terrorism by a group of eminent U.S. social scientists contains this peculiar attempt to depict the overlap between Islam and modern terrorists. "No one knows the exact percentage, but the point we wanted to convey is how small it is," explains sociologist Neil Smelser, chair of the National Research Council panel that issued the report. So why publish a diagram--the only one in the 80-page report--when there are no hard data? "We thought it reinforced our point that the vast majority of Islamic peoples have no connection with and do not sympathize with terrorism," says Smelser.

* Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences, National Research Council, November 2002.