I think it was your prose more than the underlying question. It started out as a decent inquiry — what percentage of terrorism is actually domestic? But using the correct vernacular is the earmark of an "expertly"-posed question. Maybe you were going for effect, but When you start to indulge in acerbic rhetoric:
There is this common idea out there that every bomb is set off by a guy in a turban … that common idea should not be beyond scrutiny. What do the data say here?
… you can see where folks might start to call into question the actual purpose of your post.
[Note: I'm not really addressing you here specifically, Affable Geek, but talking over your shoulder to the rest of the community regarding how questions are posed and thus treated.]
Consider my comments here:
… [it a problem when the question] becomes a thinly-veiled excuse debate and soapbox the provocative quotes. Seems you can justify just about any question on this site by ending it with the right buzzwords — as if adding "Are there any studies to support this?" somehow gives it the appearance of canonical objectivity.
I'm not saying that was your objective, but add to that that you had to spend about 80% of the question defining the definitions and terminology and clarifications and context under which it could be answered… and you can start to see why the whole thing starts to look "not constructive."
Let's try this again with what I see as a constructive question — Stack Exchange style:
What percentage of American terrorism acts turns out to be domestic?
Shortly after attacks like the one at the Boston Marathon, the rumors and reporting quickly start to speculate about "Middle-Eastern terrorism." But with all the anti-government and isolationists groups operating in this country, I was wondering if these foreign-involvement assumptions are justified.
Are there studies or statistics about what percentage of terrorist attacks in the US turn out to be domestic?
I know this may be difficult to answer, as the application of terms like "terrorist" and "Muslim" tend to come into question. But any statistics that actually define these terms would help this answer greatly.
See the difference?