Those who claim that there would be peace in the Middle East if Palestine became a state miss the point that, while the Israel-Gaza conflict grabs headlines, it is actually a very small component of a much larger pattern of Muslim violence that continues across the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa.
Between 1999 and 2026, approximately 1,140,000 to 1,600,000 people were killed by Islamic extremists or Islamic religious-nationalists, while 10,125,000 to 14,215,000 were displaced. The victims were a wide range of ethnic and religious minorities, including other Muslims whom perpetrator groups considered heretics, infidels, or ethnic inferiors.
The victims were Yazidis, Alawites, Druze, Sunni Arabs in Iraq, Kurds, Jews and Israelis, Christians in Nigeria, Copts in Egypt, Assyrians and Syriacs, non-Arab Darfuris including the Masalit, Fur, Zaghawa, Tama, and Erenga, Christians in Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Christians in the Central African Republic, Christians in Ethiopia and Amhara, and Christians in Eritrea.
The perpetrator groups include ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the IRGC, Boko Haram, ISWAP, Turkey and Turkish state forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces, the RSF/Janjaweed, SPLA-N breakaway militants, Séléka/ex-Séléka, anti-balaka, the Oromo Liberation Army, Amhara Fano militias, and the Eritrean government.