Reminder: The Majority of the Victims of Daesh Are Muslims

An intense wave of Islamophobia has reared its ugly head following the #ParisAttacks. The tragic events claimed the lives of 139 people and left more than 340 injured. Yet in the midst of the senseless backlash against Muslims and refugees, one fact seems to get lost: According to multiple surveys, most of the the thousands of people killed by Daesh are Muslims.

Last year, the United Nations released a 26-page report discussing in detail the ways in which Muslims have been targeted by Daesh, from mass beheadings to executions of Sunni clerics for not swearing allegiance to the stoning of women to death. Just in the first eight months of 2014, Daesh killed 9,347 civilians in Iraq.

Earlier this month, a video surfaced of 250 Syrian soldiers being executed. Last week, the suicide bombs in Beirut claimed the lives of 43 people and injured 239 others who are primarily Sunni Muslims.

In the Paris attacks, two French-born Muslims of Tunisian descent, Houda Saadi, a 35-year-old waitress, and Halima Saadi, were killed. Their brothers, worried about the backlash against Muslim moderates like them, told the Associated Press, “We are all in the same boat.” Other Muslims who met their fate in the Paris attacks were Djamila Houd, who had an eight-year-old daughter; Asta Diakité, the cousin of French footballer Lassana Diarra; Moroccan architect Mohamed Amine Ibholmobarak; and Kheireddine Sahbi, an Algerian violinist and composer.

Sadly, a few months ago, a poll revealed that 27% of Americans think Daesh represents true Islam. At this point, it feels like it doesn’t even matter that their victims are mostly Muslims because every terrorist attack they perpetrate just defines Islam in the minds of ignorant people and racists.

Let’s not forget, #TerrorismHasNoReligion.

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