[richlevy]

Originally Posted by smoothmoniker

Violence against abortion providers is heinous and inexcusable.

Violence against abortion providers in the US has resulted in 7 deaths, total. Every one of those was a tragedy, but this is just not the same thing as an entire culture that glorifies the violent death of their enemies, with particular emphasis on non-military targets.

True, but the point to be made is whether it's religion driving the violence or culture using religion as an excuse. Terrorism and war are both solutions to a political problem. Where insurgency becomes terrorism is a matter of choosing targets. In Northern Island, the clash was also between cultural groups that identified themselves by religion.

I'm not saying that parts of the Middle East aren't stuck a few hundred years in the past. I am saying that saying that cultural/political violence has not completely disappeared from any major religion in the world.

Civilians killed

Civilians account for the highest death toll at 53% or 1798 fatalities. Loyalist paramilitaries account for a higher proportion of civilian deaths (those with no military or paramilitary connection) according to figures published in Malcolm Sutton’s book, “Bear in Mind These Dead: An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969 - 1993”. According to research undertaken by the CAIN organisation, based on Sutton's work, 85.6% (873) of Loyalist killings, 52.9% (190) by the security forces and 35.9% (738) of all killings by Republican paramilitaries took the lives of civilians between 1969 and 2001. The disparity of a relatively high civilian death toll yet low Republican percentage is explained by the fact that they also had a high combatants' death toll.