Mark Ginsburg Makes Wrong Statement on Special Report with Brit Hume

Fox News/CIA Worldbook ^

[Recovering_Democrat]

Mark Ginsburg, foreign policy expert, former ambassador, is a favorite interview subject on Fox News. And usually his observations are on-target. But today, he kind of blew it. In an interview with Brit on "Special Report", he tried to explain France's pro-Saddam stance on the Security Council.

France, said Ginsburg, has a 20% Muslim population. Brit gently tried to interject that the Muslim population of France was half that. Ginsburg insisted that 1 in 5 Frenchmen were Muslim.

Well, here's the breakdown of France's religious demographics straight from the CIA Worldbook:

Roman Catholic 83%-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5%-10%, unaffiliated 4%

[martin_fierro]

Just saw it, too.

20% seemed to high to me, too.

[McGruff]

Man Brit is good. Quick research there Recovering_Democrat.

[kaboom]

Does the CIA number include illegal/legal African immigrants in France? There are a ton of them.

[Jael]

I heard today on the radio (from the guest on Point of View) that the amount was around 17%.

[sinkspur]

What was Ginsburg's point? That the French were afraid of their Muslim population?

Hell, blacks make up 12% of our population and we're scared to death of pissing them off!

[scooby321]

His Point was that France has bet the Ranch on Saddam

Oil Cars and influence and it is going to disappear Like that

[justanotherfreeper]

I think I know why he's confused. In certain provinces the Muslims make up about 25% (sort of like Hispanics are 35% of California, but only 12% nationally.) I'll try to find the link, it's been discussed in a couple places.

[whadizit]

I like Mark, but these ex-ambassadors, ex-generals, ex-secs. of state, etc. are given much too much credibility, and the media hangs on every word.

[lawnguy]

What was Ginsburg's point? That the French were afraid of their Muslim population?

There is a good article in the Weekly Standard that points out that the French better be concerned about angry Muslims, but not the ones in France. The soon-to-be-free ones in Irraq when they find out how France tried to obstruct their liberation.

[FBDinNJ]

That 80% number of Catholics in France is deceiving. Barely any of them go to church or even attempt to behave like decent Christians.

[CyberAnt]

But ... what's the date on those numbers. There has been a very large infiltration of France, UK and the US. I'd be interested to know the date of those numbers.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Check the link, I'm not sure, but I believe it is dated.

[CyberAnt]

Hmmm? It's kind of confusing date wise - some of the data is from 1980 and some of it is from 1999. However, the Muslim data doesn't seem to have a date. If it is 1980, then the numbers could be 20% by now.

[blam]

I read that there were 5.5 million Muslims in France.

[rolling_stone]

"FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND SECTS
France, who has the same values as all democratic States, is probably one of the countries most committed to defending public and individual freedoms at home and everywhere else in the world."


http://www.info-france-usa.org/atoz/religion.asp

[Recovering_Democrat]

See the link at response #16 on this thread. Someone kindly put up what is APPARENTLY the latest from the Embassy of France. Looks like less than 7% of the population is Muslim according to that link. :)

[CroftonFreeper]

Sounds like a good reason to invade. Lets get a resolution.

[George W. Bush]

Transcript: Hume interviews Ginsberg on France and Iraq

Brit was quick in catching the error but didn't press his guest. Very skillful.

[Mr. Mojo]

There is a good article in the Weekly Standard that points out that the French better be concerned about angry Muslims

Do you happen to have a link to that article? .....or know the title? ....Thanks.