Worldwide Muslims at a Glance: Ben Shapiro Crunches the Numbers

Ben Shapiro of Truth Revolt, responding to the recent kerfuffle between Ben Affleck and Bill Maher about whether Islam was a violent religion. I jotted down the statistics Shapiro provides. Here's the video, with my notes following: 



The question he poses: Is radicalism in the Muslim community a tiny minority phenomenon? Shapiro defines radicalism as someone who agrees to any of the following*: 

• Enforcement of strict Sharia Law
• Positive or mixed feelings about Osama bin Laden
• Positive or mixed feelings about Al Qaeda
• Suicide bombings or targeting of civilians is sometimes justified
• Honor killings of women can sometimes be justified
• Support for terror attacks on Israel
• Mocking or drawing caricatures of Mohammed

Noting that there are 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, from 49 countries where they have a majority, Shapiro proceeds to address the question posed above by relying on population statistics from The Pew Research Center as of 2011. Using one or more of the above criteria, the following numbers of Muslim worldwide could, in fact, be considered radicalized: 

African and Middle East Region

Indonesia: 143 million
Egypt: 55.2 million
Pakistan: 135.4 million
Bangladesh: 121.9 million
Nigeria: 53.7 million
Iran: 62.1 million
Turkey: 23.9 million
Morocco: 24.6 million
Iraq: 24.3 million
Afghanistan: 24 million
Jordan: 3.8 million
Palestinian areas: 3.83 million 

Western Countries

France: 1.6 million
Great Britain: 2.2 million
United States: 500,000 thousand

Number of radicalized Muslims in the regions listed above: 680,030,000 million out of a total 942.4 million Muslims.

As Shapiro notes, this figure does not include countries (apparently not included in Pew research) such as Algeria, Syria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Tunisia, Somalia, and Libya. However, it's safe to assume the percentages in these countries would be at least similar to, if not higher, than the above countries, leading one to conclude that the numbers would likely go even higher, up to or even beyond 800 million, which is over half of the total population of Muslims worldwide. 

Not, by any stretch of the imagination, a "tiny minority phenomenon." 


* It must be noted that the report by Pew does not interpret the results of its findings in terms of labels like "radicalism." While I tend to agree with Shapiro's interpretation, anyone who wants to quibble about whether or not these criteria do represent radicalism should contact Ben Shapiro himself. For a more nuanced discussion of the statistics presented in this discussion, go to the original source below.

Source: The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics, and Society (Pew Research: Religion and Public Life Project, April 30, 2013)