Why do terrorists never attack religious symbols?
They do (the 2006 bombing of the Samarra Mosque is an example) but it’s rare because religion provides a social and moral backdrop to what is objectively a political action. Political causes are usually the primary motivators for terrorist networks, and religion typically isn’t. Most terrorist groups put out propaganda that they use to recruit terrorists and to win the support of the public. In very nearly all of that propaganda across the vast majority of terrorist groups, a political goal is espoused and religion is used as a justification for the actions they engage in. That can be proven, because terrorist attacks don’t actually occur at random; there is a strategic logic to them that relates quite directly to political events and not religious ones. If terrorists were interested solely in religious warfare, it stands to reason that they would attack religious targets exclusively. That’s obviously not the case, as their targets are usually the governments and publics of democratic
