Final answer:
Martin Luther King Jr. was more likely to be arrested due to his deliberate use of nonviolent protests to provoke a response and underscore the cruelty of segregation laws, whereas Malcolm X's advocacy did not lead to the same level of protest that would provoke arrest.
Step-by-step explanation:
Martin Luther King Jr. was more likely to be arrested than Malcolm X during his years as a religious leader because of his strategic approach to civil rights activism. As the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Martin Luther King Jr. organized nonviolent protests and demonstrations designed to deliberately provoke a hostile response from authorities, which would then highlight the inhumanity of Jim Crow laws and garner public sympathy. During the Birmingham campaign of 1963, King's peaceful protests were met with violence from the police, resulting in his arrest and subsequent writing of the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Conversely, Malcolm X, while advocating for African American self-sufficiency and being critical of the slow pace of change, did not lead protests that were designed to provoke law enforcement in the same manner as King's actions, making his arrest less likely during religious leadership.