Tuesday 11 June 2013

Religion Of Peace

From The Institute for Peace & Economics, here are the bottom ten countries out of the 2013 rankings of 162 countries (the number starting 3... is the score, however that is compiled):  

162 - Afghanistan 3.440
161 - Somalia 3.394
160 - Syria 3.393
159 - Iraq 3.245
158 - Sudan 3.242
157 - Pakistan 3.106
156 - Congo, Dem.Rep. 3.085
155 - Russia 3.060
154 - North Korea 3.044
153 - Central African Rep. 3.031


It's possible of course that the people who compile this list are just "racist" of course; they also cheerfully admit:

The sharp increase in the number of homicides - up 8% over the last year - can be almost entirely attributed to Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa with, for example, the homicide rate in Honduras further increasing by almost 10 per 100,000 people - becoming the highest in the world at 92 homicides per 100,000 people.

14 comments:

Bayard said...

Yeah, for a religion that preaches "peace on Earth", Christianity really isn't very peaceful, is it?

Ralph Musgrave said...

In similar vein, the religion of the 95 people in prison in March 2012 for terrorist offence was: Anglican 1, Roman Catholic 2, Buddhist 1, other religious groups 1, no religion 3, and Muslim . . . wait for it . . . 87!!!!


Yet more evidence that Islam is a religion of peace.

That’s from a Home Office publication, “Operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation: Arrests, outcomes and stops and searches.” Table 1.18, p.40. See:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/116756/hosb1112.pdf

Unfortunately zee political left hes veys off stopping politically incorrect people like me and Mark Wadsworth speaking zee truth: they are liable to arrest us. Marine LePen looks like she might be put on trial for comparing the Islamo occupation of France to the Nazi occupation. And Nick Griffin was arrested 10 years ago for speaking the truth about Asian groomers.

See you in prison, Mark.

Anonymous said...

RM, heheh, fun facts about the Nazi occupation - apparently many more French were killed during the Allied "liberation" 1944-45 than during the whole of the original Nazi invasion/occupation 1940-44.

Bayard said...

Kj, I looked at the list, too, and though I could see that nominally Christian countries were well represented at the top of the list, I was referring to the fact that they also occupy three of the bottom four slots and Honduras, a Christian country, is singled out for special mention. It is impossible to come to any real conclusions about either Christianity or Islam without having the missing data in the middle. Without that information, drawing conclusions is the sort of statistical cherry-picking that is usually held up to ridicule in this blog.
I also find it slightly ironic that Afghanistan appears in the bottom ten, but neither of the countries which invaded it and caused the current war and lack of peacfulness therein are mentioned.

"In similar vein, the religion of the 95 people in prison in March 2012 for terrorist offence was: Anglican 1, Roman Catholic 2, Buddhist 1, other religious groups 1, no religion 3, and Muslim . . . wait for it . . . 87!!!! "

That could just as easily be cited as evidence of anti-Islamism in the British justice system. In any case, that doesn't prove anything: go back a few years and the majority of the terrorists in prison were Irish Christians.

Anyway, I don't know where this "religion of peace" idea comes from, unless Mark coined it to have a pop at Islam, but all religions are as bad as each other, except possibly Buddhism and if you go by the number of wars started in the last hundred years, Christian countries definitely come out the worst.

Anonymous said...

B, OK, it is clear that we (British) didn't cover ourselves in glory in Iraq or Afgh.

(Which reminds me that always falling into line with the other EU countries is bad but slavishly following the USA is worse).

But fact is, it is other Iraqis or other Afgh's who are responsible for 90% of the violent deaths in those two countries. While USA-UK did cause a lot of deaths, that was never their overriding and principal aim, unlike Al Qaeda and so on.

And while you might be correct to argue that Iraq would be less violent if Saddam were still in charge, the civil war in Afgh has been going on for decades or centuries.

And I accept no collective responsibility for anything that happens in Somalia, Syria, Sudan or Pakistant. Not our fault, not our problem, that's just good old-fashioned inter-Muslim warfare.

Kj said...

B:actually no, according to GPI, Honduras is in number 129. The christian majority countries in the bottom are Russia and DRC.
I can't vouch for Ralph's example, but I suspect that any attempt at providing figures will be difficult for you, if an overwhelming number simply indicates a bias in the justice system.

Back to christianity, which was my point to sort of defend. Is religiously motivated terrorism/crime a problem on the christian side? Is there any repercussions for defecting from christianity? How do christian majority countries treat other religions? In the interest of your cause for claiming that "any religion is as bad as the other", I'm sure you can just make anything up, but use your common sense. These things are not an issue in [pretty much any] christian majority countries.
I know some conservative christians, and their "front line" activity outside of religious services pretty much revolves around sending money, personell and equipment to other countries for healh-care/social welfare, often under threat of being killed by non-christian groups. Is that really violent activity? Seriously, I challenge you to provide evidence that christianity as we know it now is violent.

No, subsidies does not count as violence, I know you are not a libertarian anyway ;)

Bayard said...

Kj I didn't say Honduras was in the bottom ten, I said it was singled out for a special mention as being the country with the highest rate of homicide in the world. The majority religion in the CAR is Christianity, not that that proves anything.
Nor did I say that RM's comment showed Islamophobia in the British Justice system, I merely said that statistically, it could just as well be cited to prove Islamophobia. It all depends on your viewpoint. Lots of Muslims in prison for terrorism offences doesn't prove that Muslim=terrorist any more than lots of Irish Christians in prison for terrorism offences prove that Christian = terrorist, or even Irish = terrorist, although I can remember there were people going round back in those days saying that it did and others going round saying that it was proof of prejudice.
Finally, this post isn't about religiously-motivated crime, where Muslims undoubted have the top slot at the moment, it's about the majority religion of the countries where there is the most unrest, which is a different point altogether, so your last two paragraphs are somewhat irrelevant.
All I am trying to point out is that there are other factors at issue here. The thing that most of the bottom ten have in common is that they have totalitarian governments. Of the three that don't, two have been stirred up by the invasion of another (Christian) country and one doesn't really have any sort of government. Coincidence is not necessarily causality: there were no nuclear weapons in Britain before women got the vote.

Kj said...

Nor did I say that RM's comment showed Islamophobia in the British Justice system, I merely said that statistically, it could just as well be cited to prove Islamophobia. It all depends on your viewpoint.

Hmm... ok, so it could as well, but you said it doesn't prove anything anyway, because they were all irish before. So no figures can be used as "proof" then is it?
So how about it, is there any substantial christian movement that does violent activities on (claimed or real) religious grounds? Is there any substantiation to the claim that christianity is "as violent as any", when virtually all terrorist/war participartory activity with a stated religious cause, is not christian?

Kj said...

But fair enough. What the GPI list clearly shows, is that the most peaceful countries are rich, christian secularized / buddhist secularized countries with democracies. Qatar and Malaysia being noteable exeptions down to the mid 40s.

Bayard said...

"the claim that christianity is "as violent as any", when virtually all terrorist/war participartory activity with a stated religious cause, is not christian?"

I didn't say that Christianity was as "violent as any". I said that Christian countries, i.e. countries where the majority of people profess to believe in Christianity, don't have a good record, when it comes to starting wars and killing people. It wasn't Christianity that was doing that, but people who believed in it.
If the fact that a lot of places in the world where there is a lack of peace are inhabited by Muslims makes Islam a violent religion, then, by the same logic, the fact that the majority of the wars in the twentieth century were started by countries that are inhabited by Christians makes Christianity an aggressive one. I don't happen to believe either is the case, but you can't have one without the other.

Ralph Musgrave said...

Kj’s claim that the predominance of Muslims convicted of terrorism in the UK over Christians can be taken as evidence of Islamophobia in British courts is utterly absurd.

From the figures I quoted, it seems that Muslims are about 600 times more likely to be convicted of terrorism in Britain than Christians. (87/3) multiplied by the Christian to Muslim ratio in the UK (about 20). Britain has one of the better criminal justice systems in the World. So a bias against Muslims to the tune of two or three to one might be possible. But 600:1. Only the zealous Islamo bigot would claim that’s down to bias in the courts.

Of course if the shoe was on the other foot (e.g. if the BNP perpetrated an act of terrorism) it would only take one conviction for the left of centre Nazis like Kj to call for the shutting down of the BNP. (There’s actually a right wing party in France being closed down on the basis of JUST ONE murder allegedly committed by one of its members.)

As for Kj’s claim that Christians don’t have a good record in starting wars in the 20th century, Kj is being selective in his choice of centuries. Islam overran vast swaths of Africa and Spain by the use of force shortly after Islam was founded. Muslims overran what is now Isreal. They tried to conquer Northern mainland Europe in the ninth century AD. So Christians and Muslims are about equal, I’d say, when it comes to starting wars.

Kj said...

RM: you seriously need to read the posts again before you toss around labels "like nazi-left".

Mark Wadsworth said...

RM, firstly, would you mind actually reading the comments a bit more carefully before you start lashing out, or you end up looking a bit silly. And secondly don't insult people anyway.

Bayard said...

RM, Kj was only replying to points I made. If I was being selective in my choice of centuries, you are being selective in your choice of decades: it was not that long ago that most of the people in prison for terrorist offences were Irish Christians. In any case, even you must see that what happened twelve centuries ago is less relevant to today than what happened in the last century.
Sieg Heil
Obergruppenfuhrer Bayard.