more on Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Cliff Bamford <bamford () oz net>
Date: December 21, 2004 1:30:37 AM EST
To: 'Lee Tien' <tien () eff org>, jes30 () cornell edu
Cc: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: Re: Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims
Reply-To: bamford () oz net

Dr. Shanahan:

First let me express my admiration for the even-handedness, courtesy, 
and
professionalism of your reply to Mr. Tien.  I apologize for not cc'ing 
you
on my original posting, thanks to Lee for fixing that.

I accept some of your rebuttals, and am skeptical of others.  But rather
than focusing overmuch on those narrow issues, I'd like to raise a more
important question:

In the next Communications 282 survey project, will you conduct a poll,
using the same general framework, that assesses Muslim-American opinion 
on
equally germane questions, as suggested below.

Your 2004 study assessed religiosity only for those who self-identified 
as
Christian, Atheist, or Agnostic.  I am suggesting a poll that assesses
religiosity only for those who self-identify as Moslem, Atheist or 
Agnostic.
As with the 2004 study, Islamic religiosity could be measured as a 
standard
additive index of four questions: self-reported observance of Ramadan,
literal interpretation of the Koran, self-identification as a 
"Jihadist",
and whether the respondant believes that Allah gave the land of Israel 
to
the Jews and will restore them to it at the end of days (Koran 17:104 
Palmer
translation)  --- as with the 2004 study, respondants could be split 
into
thirds on the basis of these answers and classified as exhibiting low,
moderate, or high religiosity.

Corresponding adjustments could be made to the other parts of the 
study. The
key section about Muslim American Civil Liberties might repeat the four
questions from the 2004 study; (a useful control), but I suggest that 
it add
some others along the following lines:

1. Do you believe Moslems are required to encourage the establishment of
Sharia as the law of the land in which they live?

2. Do you believe that deep knowledge of the Koran is a fully sufficient
education?

3. Do you believe that nonbelievers in the Koran are evil or miscreants?
(Koran 2:90 Pickthall translation)

I'm sure you grasp my intent here.  I certainly don't pretend these
questions are formulated rigorously for poll purposes; I would be happy 
to
assist (if you think I can help) in making the poll as credible and 
fair as
possible.

Your most recent report made quite a splash, and (if one accepts its
conclusions) revealed startling truths about the attitudes of Americans
towards their Muslim co-nationals.  Surely fairness and professionalism
demands conducting the obverse study.

Thank You

Cliff Bamford
Bang Tao, Thailand

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Tien [mailto:tien () eff org]
Sent: Mon 20 Dec 2004 05:06
To: David Farber; Cliff Bamford
Subject: Fwd: Re: Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims

For IP, if you like -- I forwarded Cliff's comments to Dr. James 
Shanahan,
the contact listed in the Cornell document; this is what he said.

Lee

X-Qmail-Scanner-Mail-From: jes30 () cornell edu via pigeon.eff.org
X-Qmail-Scanner: 1.22 (Clear:RC:0(132.236.56.39):. Processed in 0.785265
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Cc: "Fred B. Schneider" <fbs () cs cornell edu>, Erik Nisbet 
<ecn1 () cornell edu>
From: James Shanahan <jes30 () cornell edu>
Subject: Re: Q re your study re Americans' attitudes toward Muslims
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 16:34:18 -0500
To: Lee Tien <tien () eff org>

Dear Lee:

Thanks for your note. I think the critic has some valid questions, as 
would
be the case with any survey.

The class method used has been successful for us in previous surveys.
Students work in the environment of the Survey Research Institute, where
their activities are monitored as in any survey research facility. Are 
they
more enthusiastic than other callers would be? I'm not sure, but there 
is no
focus on the newsworthiness of their results in their training. Our 
survey
center employs students in their calling activities on other surveys.

We didn't say the study was peer-reviewed. We will in due course 
publish in
peer-reviewed journals as we have done with data from previous years of 
the
survey.

There was also a criticism that the questions about Muslims were in the
context of other questions about civil liberties. We use introductory 
text
prior to each section of questions to help the respondent understand 
that
we're moving on to new topics.

Our results are fairly close to what other surveys have shown. For 
instance,
the Pew Center reported the following data in their Views on Islam poll.

QUESTION NUMBER: 510

QUESTION:
Thinking about the Muslim religion for a moment...Would you say you have
generally favorable or unfavorable opinion of Islam?

RESULTS:


Favorable       - 39%

Unfavorable     - 37

No opinion      - 24

Another interesting point is that a Zogby poll reported that about 26% 
of
Muslims surveyed had experienced some form of racial profiling.

I would agree that respondents could have very different reasons for
supporting restrictions. I've been getting lots of email from people who
agree with the critic's comments.

Sorry, I can't add more right at this point, but feel free to let any 
of the
members of your list contact me if they have further questions.





James Shanahan                                          jes30 () cornell edu
Department of Communication                             607-255-8058
Associate Professor/International Professor
Editor, Mass Communication and Society
314 Kennedy Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

http://www.comm.cornell.edu/faculty/shanahan.html




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