Obama & allies claim that 99.9% of Muslims are totally moderate - and the data says they're wrong

In a recent interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, President Obama claimed that almost all Muslims stand with us in our battle against radical Islam. As he put it, "The overwhelming majority of Muslims reject that interpretation of Islam. It's very important for us to align ourselves with the 99.9% of Muslims who are looking for the same thing we're looking for -- order, peace, prosperity."

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Since then, it's become something of a talking point for the administration and its allies. Here (thanks to the Daily Caller) is David Axelrod making the same claim on Fox. Currently, there are around 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. That means that Obama and Axelrod are arguing that only about 160,000 are what the administration has oh-so-courageously deemed radical. Unfortunately, the 99.9% shtick is yet another example of the President desperately trying to downplay the reality we face. For example, take a look at this graph via Investors Business Daily: The fact that such high percentages of young Muslims - in Western nations - are willing to entertain the notion that suicide bombings are justifiable pretty much obliterates the 99.9% claim. However, if you're skeptical, Pew's data actually gets worse from there. In 2013 Pew Research conducted a survey entitled "The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society." If their results are correct, either radical Islam is far more widespread than the President wants to admit or he has a terrifying definition of what constitutes "moderate."

"In 17 of the 23 countries where the question was asked, at least half of Muslims say sharia is the revealed word of God."

No big deal. We're constantly told that there are many subtle interpretations of what, exactly, sharia law means. If Obama's claims are correct, they must all take the "moderate" view, correct? Uh-oh. The numbers show that the people who favor sharia have some seriously intense ideas about what it means.

In the Middle East and North Africa, many Muslims who support making sharia the official law also favor punishments like cutting off the hands of thieves. This includes at least seven-in-ten in the Palestinian territories (76%) and Egypt (70%), and at least half in Jordan (57%), Iraq (56%) and Lebanon (50%). Only in Tunisia do fewer than half (44%) of those who want Islamic law as the law of the land also back these types of criminal penalties.

Nothing "extreme" about that, right? Nobody likes thieves. Let's get to the meatier issues. Where do these people stand on the whole, totally moderate, debate over "stoning adulterers to death?"

In 10 of 20 countries where there are adequate samples for analysis, at least half of Muslims who favor making sharia the law of the land also favor stoning unfaithful spouses. Some of the highest support for stoning is found in South Asia and the Middle East-North Africa region. In Pakistan (89%) and Afghanistan (85%), more than eight-in-ten Muslims who want Islamic law as their country’s official law say adulterers should be stoned, while nearly as many say the same in the Palestinian territories (84%) and Egypt (81%). A majority also support stoning as a penalty for the unfaithful in Jordan (67%), Iraq (58%). However, support is significantly lower in Lebanon (46%) and Tunisia (44%), where less than half of those who support sharia as the official law of the land believe that adulterers should be stoned.

Hmmmm. If they're trying to present 46% and 44% as palatable, we've got problems. This is starting to look bad. Maybe, about now, you're thinking Muslims should ditch Islam for another religion. If they do, they'd better be careful, because these very, very, moderate people don't like it when you walk away.

Taking the life of those who abandon Islam is most widely supported in Egypt (86%) and Jordan (82%). Roughly two-thirds who want sharia to be the law of the land also back this penalty in the Palestinian territories (66%). In the other countries surveyed in the Middle East-North Africa region, fewer than half take this view.

Oh good. "Fewer than half." To be clear, there are approximately 80 million Muslims in Egypt. According to the Pew numbers, that single country is enough to destroy the Obama administration's 99.9% fallacy. We don't even need to look at Iraq, Iran, Russia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, or Pakistan to know what a complete crock it is. ...Unless, that is, Obama doesn't think sharia law, stoning spouses, murdering apostates, and lopping the hands off thieves are things that constitute a "radical" ideology. You can read the results of Pew's research here.