The numbers game

How many jihadists do you think there are within Islam? The current consensus is that between 5 and 10 percent of Muslims practice jihad the way Muhammad did. That would put the number world-wide at somewhere north of 100 million, as the estimated population of Muslims across the globe is between 1.2 and 1.6 billion. So with that in mind, this estimate from Indonesia appears to be a bit low, the real number could be much higher, as high as 24.6 million from Indonesia alone.

Still, are 1.8 million jihadists anything to worry about? Naahh...

From Adnkronos October 12

Indonesia: About '1.8 million people' have terror links

Jihad causes poverty

Jakarta, 12 Oct. (AKI) - About 1.8 million of Indonesia's 246 million people have potential links to terrorism, according to the country's anti-terror chief.

"The number is this. More or less 1.8 million people take part in terrorist networks," said Ansyaad Mbai., who heads Indonesia's National Anti-Terrorism Agency, or BNPT, speaking during a panel discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Indonesia, world's most populous Muslim country, is combating Al-Qaeda linked terrorists whose most notorious attack was in Bali in 2002 when 200 people died in an attack by the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group. The country is also fighting a separatist movement in the Aceh region of northern Sumatra.

In the last few years Indonesia has formed links with moderate religious groups that are working to counter radical religious ideology, the Jakarta Post quoted Mbai as saying.