Who is more likely to be charged for Blasphemy?
Here I'll post a simple statistic often quoted in the media, but never properly evaluated.
"About 50% of all cases of blasphemy have been brought against Mulsims"
Very true, but we need to inspect it more closely, i.e. is it conveying the right message? Let's do some maths:
Total muslim population: 161500000 about 95%
Total non muslim population: 8500000
50% of about 650 cases brought so far: 325
For the muslim population, the rate of blasphemy charges per capita: 325/161M = 2 x 10^-6
For non muslims, the rate = 325/8500000 = 3.82 x 10^-5
Dividing the two rates: 0.0000382 / 0.000002 = 19
Thus a non muslim is 19 times (1900 percent) more likely to be charged for blasphemy than a muslim.
Of course you can say, 'why would a muslim blaspheme anyway?'. I don't have an answer for it, but still, I think when we quote the '50%' statistic, we should also quote the 1900% statistic..
Your criticism is welcome..
Here I'll post a simple statistic often quoted in the media, but never properly evaluated.
"About 50% of all cases of blasphemy have been brought against Mulsims"
Very true, but we need to inspect it more closely, i.e. is it conveying the right message? Let's do some maths:
Total muslim population: 161500000 about 95%
Total non muslim population: 8500000
50% of about 650 cases brought so far: 325
For the muslim population, the rate of blasphemy charges per capita: 325/161M = 2 x 10^-6
For non muslims, the rate = 325/8500000 = 3.82 x 10^-5
Dividing the two rates: 0.0000382 / 0.000002 = 19
Thus a non muslim is 19 times (1900 percent) more likely to be charged for blasphemy than a muslim.
Of course you can say, 'why would a muslim blaspheme anyway?'. I don't have an answer for it, but still, I think when we quote the '50%' statistic, we should also quote the 1900% statistic..
Your criticism is welcome..
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