[This is the sixth part of a ten-part series. To read more, see Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 here.]

Caffè Italiano: The two meet again and over tea and croissants, and begin conversing. 

EU bureaucrat: I have the answer. I asked my boss about the statistic you threw at me yesterday, about 11% of European Muslims, considering that violence is sometimes or always acceptable because someone has insulted their religion. She said those are just their views, just empty talk. It’s not an issue because there’s no link to Muslim involvement in crime. 

Islamofactist: She’s factually wrong.  

EU bureaucrat:  The boss is never wrong. But, anyway, tell me how.  

Islamofactist: The fact is, Muslims are overrepresented among criminals and in the prisons of Western countries.

EU bureaucrat: An Islamophobic statement like this will never be acceptable to Muslims! 

Islamofactist: To the contrary. The fact is that the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), in its 2021 report on “Defining Islamophobia,” briefly addressed the issue of “What Doesn’t Constitute Islamophobia?” It gave a few examples that included “calling out and campaigning against criminality where Muslims may happen to be involved without impugning all Muslims.”

EU bureaucrat: I see. But this so-called overrepresentation must be from right-wing sources. In my opinion, they shouldn’t have let Elon Musk buy Twitter. Was it X that peddled this to you? 

Islamofactist: No. I’m quoting Muslim sources. The fact is that in 2016, The Muslim News noted, “The number of Muslim prisoners in British jails has doubled over the past ten years.” In the US, a Muslim group called Muslim Advocates published research establishing “that Muslims are overrepresented in state prisons by a factor of eight relative to the general population. In some state systems, Muslims are overrepresented by a factor of closer to 18, with more than 20% of prisoners identifying as Muslim. The absolute number of Muslim prisoners has also increased over time, even as prison populations in many states have tended to decrease in the last few years.”

EU bureaucrat: Ah! I see. I’m relieved that Muslims are comfortable about drawing attention to their overrepresentation in prisons. Anything else significant in the UK?

Islamofactist: Yes. The so-called “Grooming Gang” scandal in the UK, which is not new, has implicated largely Pakistani-Muslim men in the rape of thousands of underage white girls. 

EU bureaucrat: I’ve been reading about it. It’s Elon Musk tweeting about it. Calling attention to the ethnicity and religion of the offenders will be Islamophobic.

Islamofactist: Well, the fact is that the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse referred to a 2015 study which recommended “researching the possible reasons for the disproportionate involvement of perpetrators from a Pakistani and/or Muslim ethnic or cultural background in group-based child sexual exploitation.” It stated that “with a significant proportion of those found guilty nationally of group Child Sexual Exploitation being from a Pakistani and/or Muslim heritage, relevant government departments should research why this is the case, in order to guide prevention strategies.” 

EU bureaucrat: Anything more on this?

Islamofactist: Yes. Dr Taj Hargey, a Muslim from the Oxford Institute for British Islam, said, “We really need to expose this. We can’t duck and dive in and pretend they are white grooming gangs … In this particular case, it’s mainly British, Pakistani men who are all Muslim. We really need to call a spade a spade.” 

EU bureaucrat: Tough words! So you would call him an Islamofactist?

EU bureaucrat: You’re learning!

Islamofactist: Any figures from France?

Islamofactist: The fact is a report from the Brookings Institution stated, “Muslims are greatly overrepresented in prisons and within the 18 to 24-year-old age group in particular: they make up only 8.5% of that age cohort in France, yet 39.9% of all prisoners in the cohort.”

EU bureaucrat: And Germany? 

Islamofactist: In Germany, the fact is that the BBC reported that research commissioned by the government found migrants “may have fueled violent crime rise.” In the Lower Saxony region of Germany, 17% of crimes attributed to migrants were suspected of being committed by North Africans, whose majority religion is Islam, even though this group makes up less than 1% of the state’s migrant population.  

EU bureaucrat:  Let’s try a Scandinavian country. How about Denmark? 

Islamofactist: The fact is independent analysis and figures from Danmarks Statistik show “there were 5,921 violent crime convictions in 2021, of which 71% (4,193) were committed by people of Danish origin and 29% (1,728) by immigrants and their descendants. In 2021, immigrants and their descendants represented 14% (817,438) and people of Danish origin 86% (5,022,607) of the total population of 5,840,045. Thus, immigrants and descendants are overrepresented in violent crime convictions, being 14% of the population and constituting 29% of the violent crime convictions. This translates into immigrants and descendants having 2.5 times higher conviction rates than natives.” Furthermore, this analysis also established the fact that persons who had the highest violent crime conviction rates expressed in multiples of the Danish conviction rate were from Kuwait, Tunisia, Lebanon, Somalia and Jordan, and they were seven to nine times greater than the Danish conviction rates. 

EU bureaucrat:  Well, they’re all victims of our unjust criminal justice systems.  I’m sure they are well-behaved in prisons. 

Islamofactist: I’m afraid not. The fact is that a statistical analysis of the UK report entitled “Terrorism in Prisons” has 45 references to “Islamist”, 41 to “Muslim” and does not mention any other religion. The report states, “The last four completed terrorist attacks in Great Britain have been carried out by prisoners serving their sentences in custody.” Furthermore, “for the last decade and a half, groups of prisoners in the Prison Estate have adopted an anti-State Islamist stance that condones or encourages violence towards non-Muslim prisoners, prison officers and the general public. Two studies of high-security prisons based on fieldwork in 2009–10 and 2014–15 identified how these groups, operating in an environment of high levels of fear amongst staff and prisoners, enabled ‘heavy players’ and ‘extremist prisoners’ to exercise significant power and influence within the prison. One study referred to ‘Muslim gang culture’ [with] some evidence of some highly structured Islamist gangs operating within the prison estate.” 

EU bureaucrat: What you are suggesting is nothing but stereotyping all Muslims as criminals. 

Islamofactist: Not at all. I am only talking about Muslims who are already in the criminal justice system. Please do not put words in my mouth.  

EU bureaucrat: I repeat: stereotyping is dangerous. 

Islamofactist: Your use of the word “stereotyping” is intellectually lazy. As an Islamofactist, let me repeat what I said: “It is a fact that Muslims are overrepresented among criminals and in the prisons of Western countries.” This does not mean that all Muslims are criminals, but their overrepresentation is a matter of valid public concern. What I said is an empirical generalization with a statistical basis, as it has a kernel of truth. Using the word “stereotypical” as you have suggests that concern is without any basis whatsoever. This is obviously not the case. 

EU bureaucrat: Muslims can say whatever they wish about Muslims. We can’t say anything about them. That would be a misuse of statistics. 

Islamofactist: I fail to see why. Hadn’t we agreed to the fact that keeping people safe is the first duty of the government? 

EU bureaucrat: Yes.  

Islamofactist:  From a policy perspective, pointing out the overrepresentation or underrepresentation of a certain group is not unusual.  For example, Muslims state that they are severely underrepresented on television. They say that while they account for 25% of the world population, research from 200 TV series studied shows that they were just 1% of speaking characters.

EU bureaucrat: That is acceptable as it shows them powerless and discriminated against. But you can’t point out their overrepresentation in crime. That would be racial profiling. No government official can do this. 

Islamofactist:  But the fact is that’s precisely what the Chief of MI5 in the UK did. 

EU bureaucrat: Those Brits again! What did he say? 

Islamofactist:  In October 2024, Director General Ken McCallum said their “counter terrorist work remains roughly 75% Islamist extremist … terrorism.” In his words, “the terrorist trend that concerns me most [is] the worsening threat from Al-Qaeda and in particular from Islamic State.” In other words, his statements reflect that while Muslims form 6% of the UK population, Islamists — who are obviously Muslim — account for the overwhelming source of terrorist threats. 

EU bureaucrat: They don’t have any facts and figures to back them up. Scaremongering, if you ask me. 

Islamofactist: They do. He said, “MI5 and the police have together disrupted 43 late-stage attack plots. Some of those plotters were trying to get hold of firearms and explosives in the final days of planning mass murder. Our vital work together has saved numerous lives.”  If 75% of MI5 work is focused on Islamist extremists, that would be 32 attacks averted. 

EU bureaucrat: Terrorism! You are throwing dynamite at me. We don’t know what such a conversation can lead us to. 

Islamofactist: Quite simply, a rational fact-based discussion. Did today’s discussion through the Islamofactist method make sense?

EU bureaucrat: My takeaway is that the Islamofactist method allows us to establish that Muslims are overrepresented in crime without vilifying all Muslims. Correct?

Islamofactist: That’s right. 

EU bureaucrat: And I’ll tell my boss that you are proposing a way to factually discuss. 

Islamofactist: Sure thing. Please convey my regards. 

EU bureaucrat: À demain. (to the server) L’addition, s’il vous plaît. 

They tussle over who will pay the bill and decide to split it. Outside, each goes their way, melting into the crowds. 

[Cheyenne Torres edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.