CAIR's fuzzy math

On Sunday the Houston office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) sent out a press release saying it was holding a news conference calling for political and religious leaders in Texas to condemn Islamophobia. We at blogHOUSTON couldn't wait to see if the Chronicle would send a reporter and, if so, to read the story.

We weren't disappointed. The Chronicle answered the call and on Tuesday Melanie Markley wrote a press-release talking-points story:

Last week's attempted firebombing of an Islamic center in El Paso represents the latest in a renewed rash of hate crimes against Muslims in Texas, the director of Houston's Council on American-Islamic Relations said Monday.

Iesa Galloway, executive director of CAIR in Houston, called on political and religious leaders Monday to condemn the attack in El Paso, calling it an act of "Islamophobia," a term he said was coined by his organization.

"This," said Galloway, "is the latest in a trend of attacks that have been happening across Texas."

Galloway said other recent acts include a dry-ice bomb that exploded in a mailbox at a Houston-area Islamic center, a series of arsons in San Antonio that targeted Muslim-owned businesses and graffiti and other hateful incidents in McAllen.

Galloway said he believes that hate crimes against Muslims have spiked during the past six months.

If Galloway provided statistics to back up what he believes, the Chronicle reporter didn't pass them on in the story. Next to the story online is a statistics box that belies Galloway's assertion that Muslim hate crimes are on the rise. The statistics, from the Texas Department of Public Safety, list hate crimes reported against Muslims in Texas:

TEXAS STATISTICS
Incidence of hate crimes reported against Muslims in Texas, by year:

• 2004: No statistics available
• 2003: 4
• 2002: 11
• 2001: 29
• 2000: 3

Source: Texas Department of Public Safety

We can see in 2001 there was a high of 29 hate crimes and last year there were four. Seems as though hate crimes against Muslims have been declining, dramatically. Galloway highlighted the attack on an El Paso mosque, and a dry-ice bomb in a mailbox at a Houston mosque. In the case of the El Paso attack, the police have already arrested a suspect. While certainly a disturbing incident, it's a stretch to say Texas is experiencing an epidemic of Muslim hate crime attacks. And a dry-ice bomb in a mailbox could just as easily have been kids pulling a prank.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee also received the CAIR summons and made sure she was available for the mid-morning press event:

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, joined Galloway in urging political leaders to condemn the violence against Muslims, who have been particularly targeted since Sept. 11, 2001, when Islamic extremists flew airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"It is truly saddening to me that in this day and era there are still hate crimes being committed, but this bigotry will not deter our nation from treating people of all faiths with equality and dignity," Jackson Lee said.

Wait a minute. Muslims "have been particularly targeted since Sept. 11, 2001 when Islamic extremists flew airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon"? Did Rep. Lee say Muslims have been particularly targeted or did the reporter just add that for dramatic effect? Sure we have that statistic above that says there were 29 hate crimes against Muslims in 2001, but where are the rest of the statistics? Where's the context?

To make a blanket statement like that, a reporter who was interested in reporting more than CAIR talking points, might have gathered statistics of all hate crimes in the state of Texas.

It wasn't too hard to go to the Texas Department of Public Safety's website and find the total number of reported hate crimes for the past several years:

2003: 295
2002: 344
2001: 429
2000: 286

That appears to mirror the numbers given in the Chronicle story, i.e. 2001 saw a spike in hate crimes, but the number has been declining since then. In 2001 the total number was 429, and of those 29 were against Muslims. So, in 2001 less than seven percent of hate crimes in Texas were committed against Muslims. In 2002, it was less than four percent. In 2003 it was less than two percent.

The only trend the math geniuses at blogHOUSTON can see is a declining trend.

No one is condoning violence against Muslims, but journalists, we are told, are supposed to be skeptical. Wednesday's Chronicle editorial on CBS assures readers of this, in the first sentence:

If curiosity and a sense of competition are the basic food groups of the news business, skepticism is an essential nutrient. At CBS News, people forgot to take their vitamin pills.

A skeptical reporter would have been more curious about whatever numbers and facts were handed out by the CAIR representatives.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/22/04 05:37 PM | Print |

Bookmark and Share

Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry


 SITE MENU

+Home
+About
+Archives
+BH Commentary (RSS)
+Bloggers
+Blogroll
+Contact Us
+Forum
+Local News Headlines
+Syndication
+Twitter

 ADVERTISING

 DISCLAIMER

All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.

blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.

Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.