Over at Planck’s Constant Blog, fellow grey-beard Bernie has come up with a “Muslim Threat Index”. Good one, Bernie!
No surprises in Pakistan being at the top of the danger league, though perhaps surprising that it’s by such a large margin a greater potential threat than the next on the list Nigeria. I was also surprised – though perhaps fellow Aussies may not be – by Indonesia’s being so high on the threat list.
I can hear all the criticisms of this “Threat Index”, from “you can’t be serious” to “it’s not nuanced enough” and so forth. My view: it’s been done with enough care and with enough factors to make it a useful reference. No doubt it can be improved (“nuanced”) but meantime it’s useful and I commend it, even unto the “government security agencies”…. I know about them from times past and their threat assessments were often nuanced to pabulum…
I’ve just done my own Index: the “Discrimination Index”, aka the “Victimhood Index”. It came about because of the claims we hear from Muslim spokespersons whenever there’s some outrage committed by their co-religionists, that they fear a “backlash” against Muslims. Some of the more egregious examples are: after the Mumbai bombing and the murder of the Jewish leader and his pregnant wife, what we heard from Muslim commentators was concern for the safety of Muslims. And most recently, the Rifqa Bary case, about which I wrote here. There is less concern for Ms Bary’s safety than for the alleged backlash against Muslims that the publicity of the case might entail.
So, is it true that Muslims are discriminated against disproportionately to their numbers in society? To calculate that I got the numbers of Hate Crimes in the US against each religion, and the percentage of those religions in the total population (refs below). Divide hate crime per religion by that religion’s percentage in the population: if the answer is 1 (one), then that religion is experiencing hate crime in proportion to its share of the population. A figure higher than 1 (one) means they’re being disproportionately targeted by hate crimes.
These are the results:
Crimes against: | % of crimes | % of population | Discrimination Index |
Jews | 69.2% | 1.2% | 57.67 |
Muslims | 8.7% | 0.6% | 14.50 |
Catholics | 4.3% | 25.0% | 0.17 |
Protestants | 4.1% | 51.0% | 0.08 |
Atheists | 0.5% | 15.0% | 0.03 |
Other | 9.1% | 8.0% | 1.14 |
[Total "Hate Crimes" in 2007: 9,567]
So: yes, Muslims are disproportionately targeted while we Atheists get off almost scot-free. But way more discriminated against are the Jews, by a factor of 57 versus the base of 1 (one) and four times more than Muslims are. I know there are anti-anti-Semitism lobby groups; but we do not hear from them nearly so often as we do from the Muslim ones. Why is that? Given that they are way more disproportionately targeted?
So: yes, Muslims are disproportionately targeted while we Atheists get off almost scot-free. But way more discriminated against are the Jews, by a factor of 57 versus the base of 1 (one) and four times more than Muslims are. I know there are anti-anti-Semitism lobby groups; but we do not hear from them nearly so often as we do from the Muslim ones. Why is that? Given that they are way more disproportionately targeted?
What is surprising perhaps, given their co-religionists insistence on attempting to kill infidels, is that the number of hate crimes against Muslims is actually so low: just 141 in 2007. (and btw, Daniel Pipes has shown elsewhere that many of the crimes against Muslims were “manufactured” by the Muslim bodies such as CAIR; but we’ll leave that for the moment).
Another interesting point: the fastest growing belief 1990 to 2008 was Atheism. Islam was fifth fastest growing, after Atheism, Buddhism, Born-again Christians, and non-denominational Christians. Interesting, when we hear so often from Islamic sources, that Islam is the fastest growing religion.
And what about the total number? According to the stats, the number of Muslims in the US is 1.8 million. That’s way less than Muslim lobby groups quote: most often they say 5 to 7 million Muslims in the US. Hmm….. the less the size of the group, the less is your clout. I wonder why they exaggerate by nearly 300%...
US population | 305,000,000 | 2008/1990 Growth |
Jews | 3,660,000 | 14.6% |
Muslims | 1,830,000 | 156.0% |
Catholics | 76,250,000 | 24.3% |
Protestants | 155,550,000 | 10.4% |
Atheists | 45,750,000 | 204.0% |
Other religions | 24,400,000 | 0 to 300% |
References:
2. Demographics: Statistics of Religion in the US from the American Religious Identification Survey, 2008, and on the Population, from the US Census Department, Feb 2009.
