(if this comment is right - shades of Rimm d jf) Nearly half of Americans wou ldrestrictMuslimAmericans Civil Rights

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Subject:        For IP: re Be Very Afraid: Nearly half of Americans wou ldrestrictMuslimAmericans Civil Rights
Author: Cliff Bamford <bamford () oz net>
Date:           19th December 2004 1:00:57 pm

Oh Puhleeeze.  I would have thought the readership of this list was smart
enough to know polls like this have very low credibility.  

In my opinion, this one started out with a conclusion in mind and (guess
what) found that the data supported it.  This is NOT the same thing as
formulating a hypothesis and honestly trying to refute it.  If you don't
understand this distinction, or if you haven't read the original paper at 
http://www.comm.cornell.edu/msrg/report1a.pdf then perhaps you'd be
considerate enough to inform yourself before contributing further
commentary.

First I'd like to address the methodology and credibility of the poll:

1. The undergraduate students of the Cornell Course 282 -- Communication
Industry Research, participating in a Survey Research Institute program,
were instrumental in collecting the survey data in the report. From the SRI
description of this program: The SRI staff provides in-class instruction,
and training within the survey facility, on the theory and practice of
survey research and telephone interviewing. Each student then conducts ten
real survey interviews on an annual national telephone social survey.

So this wasn't a peer-reviewed research study, it was a class exercise, at
least in part.  Conducted by young men and women who are conventionally more
renowned for their fervor than for their fastidiousness.  There were
certainly no mechanisms evident to control for interviewer group bias or
desire to achieve newsworthy results.

2. More importantly, several questions in the poll were about terrorism, and
civil liberty issues relevant thereto.  Other questions involved Muslim
Americans and similar issues.  I saw no evidence of mechanism to control for
interviewee confusion between the two terms.

3. I have many other indictments of the poll's significance and methodology,
should anyone like to discuss them offline.   My bottom line is: this poll
is very nearly meaningless.

As to the more important question of Muslim-American civil rights and
obligations: There is value in remembering that a significant number of
Muslims have announced support for the idea that it is an act of aposty
against Islam to cooperate with civilian authorities against any other
Muslims --- terrorist or otherwise.  Sheikh Omar Bakri of Al-Muhajiroun is
possibly the best-known proponent of this admittedly minority opinion. 

However, there is a pile of other evidence that suggests that the Muslim
religion is intrinsically at odds with secular governments in the USA or
anywhere else. If I'm wrong about this, Muslim Americans do indeed have a PR
problem, because many Americans of good will worry about it.  If I'm right,
and there is indeed an Islamic religious barrier to participation in
pluralistic secular democracies, then the parameters and implications of
those barriers need to be more widely and deeply understood.

Cringing in anticipation of the outraged and poorly-argued abuse that is
about to come my way.

Cliff Bamford
Bang Tao, a Muslim neighborhood in
Thailand










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