# Why would terrorists attack on major holidays?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-terrorists-attack-on-major-holidays/222970>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 6, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-terrorists-attack-on-major-holidays/222970 "2004-01-06T07:55:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-terrorists-attack-on-major-holidays/222970/21 "2004-01-07T08:05:00Z")

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I’d just like to point out that no muslims, fanatics or not, consider Christianity ‘pagan’. A minor detail possibly but one in a long line that seem to confirm that a big part of people don’t actually know what the conflict is about or who it’s with.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-terrorists-attack-on-major-holidays/222970/22 "2004-01-07T08:08:38Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Stoneburg \*  
> I’d just like to point out that no muslims, fanatics or not, consider Christianity ‘pagan’.

Gee, I feel safer already.🙂

> [@](#):
>
> A minor detail possibly but one in a long line that seem to confirm that a big part of people don’t actually know what the conflict is about or who it’s with.

I think it only means that some people don’t know the difference between “pagan” and “infidel”. Although there certainly are many in the US who don’t distinguish between “muslim” and “radical muslim terrorist”, it’s probably not as bad as it seems.

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**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-terrorists-attack-on-major-holidays/222970/23 "2004-01-07T19:11:21Z")

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Possible reasons for a terrorist act during the holidays:

1. Security will already be swamped by vastly increased numbers of travellers. Even heightened security might not be able to do as much screening proportionately as previously.

2. Maximize secondary chaos. If an attack succeeds (or even just occurs) the disruptive effects will be far greater when there are more people trying to move around - schedules and windows are probably tighter and more susceptible to disruption. Consider the effects that major storms have during the holidays and multiply that by all the airports in the country rather than a region.

3. Even if no attack occurs, the threat has maximized the costs of security and spread the fear of airplane terrorism to a much larger group than the normal number of travelers.

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