Small number of Muslims still big

Local columnist

link Rube Render

Two details appear to remain constant in the discussion about workplace violence where the perpetrators shout “Allah Akbar” while killing defenseless victims as happened at Fort Hood several years ago and just recently in Paris at the offices of the weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

One is the number of non-Muslims who assure everyone else that these “activists” are not real Muslims and the second is that only a small percentage of the more than one billion Muslims are complicit in these acts. This figure is suggested consistently at 10 percent. It needs to be remembered that 10 percent of one billion is one hundred million, a not insignificant number.

The population of France (minus colonies and possessions) is stated roughly as 63.9 million. Of that number, between 5 and 10 percent are said to be Muslim. If we split the difference we can call the figure 7.5 percent and that makes the number of Muslims in France 4,792,500. Ten percent of that number is 479,250 people who actively support the jihadist cause.

Given that in 2012 the World Bank Data web site put the number of French armed services personnel at 150,000 less than the number of jihadi sympathizers, it’s no surprise there are so-called “no go zones” in most large cities in France. The French government vehemently denies these zones exist but does admit to Sensitive Urban Zones where police and non-Muslims are not welcome.

Regardless of what the zones are called, it is well-documented that “restless youths” who live there have torched about 1,000 cars every New Year’s Eve since 2005. The government has recently announced it plans to increase the number of police and security personnel by 2,000 members since the recent killings.

One final thought: At the Republican National Committee meeting in San Diego, Dr. Ben Carson, the retired chief neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins Hospital, noted that those supporting radical Islamic terrorism were willing to die for their beliefs. Can we honestly say that we are willing to die for our beliefs? Or is it “a thin red line of heroes when the drums begin to roll,” as Rudyard Kipling told us?

The Pew Research Center points out that in the last decade only one half of 1 percent of Americans have served in the armed forces. Winston Churchill could have been talking about the U.S. military when he stated, “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at:

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