Juan Cole's Misformed Comment on Religion and Murder Rates

Juan Cole starts his Terrorism and the other Religions  with this assertion

Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher#, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States.

After examining Cole's claims about religions and war and political death,  I got to wondering if it was really the case that "Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States."  Turns out it doesn't seem to be the case.  It depends on whether 'most'  means 'nearly all' or 'the largest number' and whether 'very low' means simply 'less than' or a 'lot less than.'  And how defines the "Muslim" world.

 The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime actually compiles statistics on homicides which can be found on Wikipedia here.  I've made a list of US and Islamic countries, which I'm taking to be majority population, excluding countries where Muslims are a plurality or large minority.

If I had more time and wasn't so rusty on statistics, I would do a bell curve (on all countries or the subset below) and define "very low" as one or two standard deviations below the U.S,  Would you say a very low comparative murder rate would be one-half, one-fourth, or one-tenth of the United States?  Let's go with one-half.

As you can see in the table below, seventeen (17) Muslim countries countries have higher murder rates than the United  States, including Sudan, Indonesia, and Senegal. Another twelve (12) have reported  murder less than the US, but more than fifty percent of the U.S. rate   That group includes Iran, Palestine, and Turkey.   That's a total of thirty-nine (39).    By this criteria, twenty-three (23) Muslim countries have "very low" murder rates compared to the U.S. That less than most.

Another eight (8) Muslim countries have reported rates less than fifty percent (50%) but greater than forty percent (40%) of the U.S., including Malaysia and Kuwait.  By this criteria, only fifteen (15) Muslim countries have "very low" rates compared to the U.S.  That's even less than most

In sum, I think Cole's claim that "Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States" should be rejected.

UNODC murder rates most recent year (full table here)
Country	Rate	Count	Region	Subregion
Sudan	24.2	10,028++	Africa	Northern Africa
Guinea-Bissau	20.2	294	Africa	Western Africa
Kyrgyzstan	20.1	1,072	Asia	Central Asia
Burkina Faso	18.0	2,876	Africa	Western Africa
Eritrea	17.8	879	Africa	Eastern Africa
Chad	15.8	1,686	Africa	Middle Africa
Benin	15.1	1,262	Africa	Western Africa
Sierra Leone	14.9	837	Africa	Western Africa
Mauritania	14.7	485	Africa	Western Africa
Comoros	12.2	85	Africa	Eastern Africa
Nigeria	12.2	18,422	Africa	Western Africa
Gambia	10.8	106	Africa	Western Africa
Kazakhstan	8.8	1,418	Asia	Central Asia
Senegal	8.7	1,027	Africa	Western Africa
Indonesia	8.1	18,963	Asia	South-Eastern Asia
Mali	8.0	1,157	Africa	Western Africa
Pakistan	7.8	13,860+	Asia	Southern Asia
United States	4.8	14,748	Americas	Northern America
Turkmenistan	4.2	203	Asia	Central Asia
Yemen	4.2	990+	Asia	Western Asia
Palestine	4.1	145+	Asia	Western Asia
Albania	4.0	127	Europe	Southern Europe
Niger	3.8	552	Africa	Western Africa
Djibouti	3.4	29	Africa	Eastern Africa
Turkey	3.3	2,320	Asia	Western Asia
Uzbekistan	3.1	831	Asia	Central Asia
Iran	3.0	2,215	Asia	Southern Asia
Libya	2.9	176+	Africa	Northern Africa
Bangladesh	2.7	3,988	Asia	Southern Asia
Mauritius	2.5	33	Africa	Eastern Africa
Afghanistan	2.4	712+	Asia	Southern Asia
Malaysia	2.3	604	Asia	South-Eastern Asia
Syria	2.3	463+	Asia	Western Asia
Azerbaijan	2.2	206	Asia	Western Asia
Kuwait	2.2	59	Asia	Western Asia
Lebanon	2.2	95	Asia	Western Asia
Tajikistan	2.1	143	Asia	Central Asia
Iraq	2.0	608+	Asia	Western Asia
Jordan	1.8	100	Asia	Western Asia
Maldives	1.6	5	Asia	Southern Asia
Somalia	1.5	138+	Africa	Eastern Africa
Algeria	1.5	516	Africa	Northern Africa
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.5	56	Europe	Southern Europe
Morocco	1.4	447	Africa	Northern Africa
Egypt	1.2	992	Africa	Northern Africa
Tunisia	1.1	117	Africa	Northern Africa
Saudi Arabia	1.0	265+	Asia	Western Asia
Qatar	0.9	13	Asia	Western Asia
United Arab Emirates	0.8	39	Asia	Western Asia
Oman	0.7	18	Asia	Western Asia
Bahrain	0.6	6	Asia	Western Asia
Brunei	0.5	2	Asia	South-Eastern Asia

# I don't think Cole fairly represents Maher here, at least not in the clip I've seen.