Illogical argument

Reader comment on item: The Enemy Within [and the Need for Profiling]

Submitted by Jon Miller (Canada), Jan 31, 2003 at 15:03

Dear Daniel Pipes,
In your article entitled "The Enemy Within" you make the following argument:

"While most Muslims are not Islamists and most Islamists are not terrorists, all Islamist terrorists are Muslims."

Sorry, but this conclusion is invalid.

P1. Most Muslims are not Islamists.
P2. Most Islamists are not terrorists.

Does not necessitate the conclusion that:

C. All Islamist Terrorists are Muslim.

One can easily check to see this invalidity using standard Euler circles to show you are commiting the fallacy of the undistributed middle term.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Mine was not an exercise in logic but an empirical observation.

DP