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)

Not Useful, Just an Idiot

Behold the beautiful people, Hollywood gentility, blue blooded, empty-headed, imbeciles, idiots. 

Ay me! She speaks!

"Give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass" 

(Gwyneth Paltrow, speaking at a fund raiser at her house for Barack Obama).

I wanted to include her in my (growing) list of "useful idiots," but Paltrow strikes me as nothing more than a foolish, fatuous, vacuous, unschooled, ignorant person, so I didn't want to dignify her with the designation. Now, though, reading this article by Steve McCann, published a couple of years ago, I suppose I should go ahead and upgrade her status to "useful." As McCann explains, the term "useful idiot" was coined "by the leaders of the Soviet Union to describe those in the West who naively promoted the cause of Russian Communism when in reality they were held in contempt and were being cynically used by the Soviet hierarchy." Now, he remarks, the term aptly applies to "a vast swath of citizens in the United States who have been cynically used by the hardcore left for a cause they are unwilling to understand." He continues: 

Among the mysteries confronting those of us who have immigrated to the United States from countries that have experienced the devastating outcome of socialist/Marxist ideology [McCann apparently came to America as a child in 1952, but I don't know from where], is why seemingly successful and educated people could be so easily swayed to support those whose end-game is to transform the country into a socialist "utopia" and to control the day-to-day lives of all Americans. Among these "useful idiots" are a seeming majority of the Jewish population as well as many in business, and nearly all in the entertainment industry.

So yes, Ms. Paltrow, it appears you are, in fact, a useful idiot after all, along with Maxine Waters and Ben Affleck. 

Speaking of Affleck, I wonder what his thoughts were today about the Islamists he defends with such ardor as he read in today's Los Angeles Times that Islamic State proudly justifies "forcing ethnic Yazidi women into sexual slavery--a practice they say is encouraged under Islamic [Sharia] law" and that the group "exults in the enslavement and rape of women from the Yazidi religious minority captured in Iraq after their husbands or fathers were killed or taken prisoner." Comments, sir? 

"Islamic State Publication Seeks to Justify Slavery and Sexual Abuse" (by David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times, October 14, 2014).

Ben Affleck, Another Useful Idiot

What an odd group of panelists. Ben Affleck, Michael Steele, and Nicholas Kristof debating Bill Maher and Sam Harris discussing radical Islam and whether condemning radical Islam is a type of Islamophobia. I never thought the day would come when I sided with Bill Maher, but that day has come. The world truly must be topsy-turvy. 

I'm surprised to see Michael Steele siding with Affleck and Kristof against Maher. I sort of wonder what the back story is. And what a foolish man, Ben Affleck, whose reasoning seems to be (if you'll pardon the cliché), a mile wide and an inch deep.

Transcript can be read here, if you can't stand listening to these gentlemen argue.