Hannah Blacklock deplores the wild exaggerations in scare-mongering ‘anti-terrorist’ headlines.
On Monday 23 November 2015, The Sun’s front page headline read: ‘1 in 5 Brit Muslims’ sympathy for Jihadis’.
The Daily Mail also ran the story: ‘Divided Kingdom: One in five British Muslims have sympathy for those joining ISIS’.
The Mail included a helpful info-graphic – because if it’s in a pie chart, it must be true, right?
But if we’re going to look at statistics on the risks to the rest of us posed by people harbouring ‘sympathy’ for terrorists, let’s do it properly – by working out the odds of being killed in a terrorist attack compared to the probability of meeting our death in various other ways.
IN 2014 THE PRECISE ODDS OF DYING FROM ANY ONE OF A RANGE OF DIFFERENT CAUSES WERE CALCULATED AS FOLLOWS:
Attacked by a shark: 300,000,000/1.
From a falling coconut: 250,000,000/1.
In a plane crash: 11,000,000/1.
In a terrorist attack: 9,300,000/1.
After falling out of bed: 2,000,000/1.
In a road accident: 8,000/1.
From cancer: 5/1
From heart attack or stroke: 2.5/1.
This suggests that you are marginally more likely to die in a terrorist hi-jacking than an airline accident; but falling out of bed is far more of risky than both.
Use and Abuse of Statistics
When national newspapers publish scaremongering headlines on the front page, is it any wonder that people are taking information out of context?
Research shows that 44% of Google News visitors scan a headline without clicking through to the original website. No matter what is said in the rest of the article, nearly half the people who see the headline, do not feel the need to look into it.
This is not a slight on the reader; it is a failure on the part of journalists and professional news platforms. And journalism’s failure breeds further failure: the desperate attempt to draw attention to a story even if it is taken out of context or based on next to nothing.
Inciting irrational fear on the general public and encouraging racial hatred is not news reporting. It’s propaganda. And it’s fueling a fire that we need to stamp out.
According to the Metropolitan Police, hate crimes against Muslims in London have risen by 70%.
The Met’s statistics for the 12-month period between July 2014 and July 2015 show that 816 Islamophobic offences were recorded. The previous year’s figure stood at 478.
Since the Paris terror attacks on Friday 13 November 2015, some sources suggest that hate crimes against Muslims have soared by over 300%.
With an ever-growing Muslim community in East London, it is especially important for us to remember that there is often much LESS to a front page story than meets the eye.
Also, if you are now staying indoors worrying about being caught up in terrorist attacks carried out by ISIS-supporting Jihadists, please remember that road traffic poses a much greater threat to life and limb.