Post# 1561788497

29-Jun-2019 12:08 pm


BBC's recent article that Arabs are quickly turning non-religious

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48703377

But it has a few catches :

=1
The main graph is a bit misleading. One might think 70-80% are non-religious until you check the scale and see it runs only upto 40%. i.e. it's zoomed-in to the lower part. Real change : what previously was 8% is now 13%. A 5% increase in 5 years. Which isn't that bad considering my initial guess after reading the title was : 70-80% should have been driven to atheism by now.

=2
Second issue, the term "non-religious" carries different meaning in West vs in Arab. In arab any muslim that doesn't pray 5 times a day but wishes to do so and believes in God, will identify him as non-religious. While in west it means someone is atheist or agnostic.

Highlighted by someone in this tweet
https://twitter.com/shadihamid/status/1144703715682791424

=3
Saudi, UAE and large part of Arab land is off this chart. And it mainly focuses on North Africa.

=4
But even if small, the trend is real. Though not more than what we are experiencing here in BD.

29-Jun-2019 12:08 pm

Published
29-Jun-2019