Americans’ fear of terrorist attacks in the United States by Islamic extremists has reached levels comparable to immediately after 9/11. According to a Dec. 15 Gallop poll, 47 percent of Americans are worried they will be a victim of IS-inspired terrorism.

Is that level of fear justified? We have allowed our fear to grow out of proportion to the actual threat of jihadist terrorist attacks in the United States. Since 9/11 jihadist terrorist attacks in the United States have killed 45 persons, including those killed in San Bernardino. Tragic and too many, but it still represents a small probability versus other risks to our well-being.

In the last 10 years, 280,000 Americans were killed by gun-related crimes. The risk of dying of cancer is 1 in 540, and the risk of a fatal vehicle accident is 1 in 8,000, while the risk of dying in a terrorist attack is 1 in 3.5 million. Furthermore, based on FBI and Princeton University reports, only 6 percent of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil were by Islamist terrorists, while 94 percent were perpetrated by other violent extremists, including left wing, right wing, Latino, Jewish, communist and other terrorist groups.

Such unchecked fear can undermine our homeland security. That fear and the religious discrimination it spawns against people of the Islam religion, with encouragement from irresponsible politicians like Donald Trump, means IS is succeeding. The use of this fear to get our vote emboldens terrorists and provides fodder for their recruitment efforts. It also undermines the efforts of our troops abroad and the U.S. intelligence community to protect us from future jihadist attacks.

We need to stop aiding IS through an irrational fear of all Muslims, and by threatening widespread religious discrimination against Americans or Syrian refugees simply because they follow Islam.

George Seel

Belgrade