Data gathered by New America, a Washington-based research center, indicates that 48 people have been killed by non-Muslim extremists in the United States since September 11, 2001. The research states that self-proclaimed jihadists have claimed the lives of 26 Americans since then.
The study did not factor in this week’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College where 13 people lost their lives, nor the killings of two police officers at the hands of a Las Vegas couple who drew a Swastika on one of the bodies.
“There’s an acceptance now of the idea that the threat from jihadist terrorism in the United States has been overblown,” Dr. John G. Horgan, who studies terrorism at the University of Massachusetts said. “And there’s a belief that the threat of right-wing, antigovernment violence has been underestimated.”
