Some practical statistics

[chickenfeet]

Lord Stevens claims 3000 British based Muslims have been through Al Quaeda training camps.

Let's see:

There are 1.6 million Muslims in Britain, of which half, one assumes, are female and unlikely to attend AQ camps. So, 800,000 males.

At least a quarter of those must be too young to have had terrorist training so let's say 600,000 adult males.

So 1 in 200 adult British Muslim males have left the country for terrorist training?

I have my doubts.

Comments

[tanuja.livejournal.com]

This is what happens when people randomly throw out statistics, people like yourself and my husband go "eh, that can't be right" and actually make the effort to work out what the statistics actually mean, before commenting on the viability of the comment. I simply think "oh that's crap", but don't bother with the next step.

So hats off to people like yourself and Mr Tanuja who make the effort to prove the stats are crap, and also to prove that 82% of statistics are made up on the spot ;)

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

C'est un gendarme blond.

Nice, thank you.

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

I know you will all laugh at me for being like the accountant and splitting hairs but the 1.6m Muslims doesn't count all the people who might hold British passports but who were not in England and Wales on census day in 2001, but instead were elsewhere (maybe even in AQ camps?!) This can lead to significant deviation in the true numbers of all those who might be considered "British-based". This is especially the case for countries in the Commonwealth where migration and dual nationality are common.

Viz the dreaded KiltGuy: technically a Canadian citizen, has a passport and ID card etc, would be the first to wave his Canadian nationality around if ever drafted into anything unpleasant in the UK, but has visited The Big Maple only three times in the last ten years.