Fewer people link Islam, violence

I can only scratch my head on this one (make sure to scroll down for more comment from me):

The percentage of Americans who believe Islam is more likely than other religions to inspire violence has declined in the past two years, according to a poll taken after the London bombings.

Just over a third, 36 percent, now say the Islamic religion is more likely to inspire violence, while 44 percent said that in July 2003, according to the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

“This may have to do with some backing off of negative opinions the American public had of Muslims in 2002 and 2003,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

Really?

“The more people know about Islam, the less critical they are,” said Kohut.

People who were more knowledgeable about Islam tended to have a more positive view of Muslim-Americans and their religion. Only a third of Americans said they have some knowledge or a lot of knowledge about Islam.

Doesn’t Kohut’s quote and the last sentence on the 1/3rd of Americans strike you as a bit on the contradictory side? Per the poll, only about 1/3 of Americans say that have some or ‘a lot’ of knowledge about Islam, yet the poll also states that only 36% of those polled view Islam as a religion that would likely inspire violence and trumpets this as a ‘decline’ from a year ago. So are we to take from Kohut’s comments that a more informed audience would be even LESS likely to view Islam as a religion that would inspire violence even though the number of people who actually know something about Islam make up only about 1/3rd of the responses whereas 2/3rds of the responses were made by people who apparently knew nothing about Islam? Is this poll even worth the paper it’s written on? Are you tired of me asking questions?

I need a Tylenol.

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11 Responses to "Fewer people link Islam, violence"

mikem says:

July 26, 2005 at 11:29 pm

I think poll results like these reflect the American public’s awareness of PC liberal efforts to stigmatize Christians and condemn those who express negative opinions about Islamists. In other words, Christian bashing is progressive and liberal; Islamist bashing is judgmental and Islamophobic.
mark says:

July 26, 2005 at 11:38 pm

People are ignorant about the Islamic threat? Well, they have been for over 300 years. In 1683, Islamic armies were finally driven out of Europe by Polish forces, in the Battle of Vienna, which various historians have determined was fought on Sept. 10, or 11, or 12, 1683 (does that date sound familiar).

It has become all too clear, that since that time, the West has been in a second Dark Ages, totally blind to the fact that the current war did not start on 9-11-2001, or during the 1990s, but rather, it began 1,400 years ago, shortly after the death of “the Prophet” Mohammed, as the Islamic armies raided and conquered the Christian lands in present day Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and North Africa, before storming into Europe and getting half-way to Paris before they were stopped in 732.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours
ttyler5 Houston says:

July 27, 2005 at 4:53 am

ST,

Ma’am, it is likely this drop in the polls is also partly due to the success of the Iraq elections, the growth of the Iraqi security forces and the victimization of Iraqi citizens by the Islamofacsists.

When we see the voting, when we see hundreds of Iraqi Muslims fighting alongside our troops and scores of innocent Muslim civilians being killed by the terrorist thugs, it is very difficult to think of the mass-murdering Jihadists as even of the same race as the Iraqi citizens and security forces, let alone as of the same religion.
actus says:

July 27, 2005 at 7:44 am

“So are we to take from Kohut’s comments that a more informed audience would be even LESS likely to view Islam as a religion that would inspire violence even though the number of people who actually know something about Islam make up only about 1/3rd of the responses whereas 2/3rds of the responses were made by people who apparently knew nothing about Islam?”

The correlation can exist even if it the independent variable (knowledge about islam) does not fully explain the dependent variable (views about islam). There can still be a tendency to have views about islam improve with knowledge.
Sister Toldjah says:

July 27, 2005 at 8:17 am

Mike: Intersting perspective. I hadn’t thought about that but you may be on to something.

Mark: Oh, indeed. Even after the horrific attacks on 9-11, and the various attacks that have happened in other nations since, it’s amazing that there are so many people out there ill-informed about the enemy we face today.

Tyler: I’d like to think you’re right re: the success of the Iraqi elections, but I’m not so sure. Especially considering the fact that only 1/3 of the poll participants knew anything at all about Islam. However, saying that, what do you want to bet we have a different poll in a few weeks that gives us a very different (opposite) result? LOL – that’s just how polls are. Different day, different style of questioning, different results

Actus: But there weren’t many knowledgeable participants to begin with, yet the belief that Islam can cause violence has gone *down*? Mebbe I just need some caffeine to give my brain a jumpstart this morning
actus says:

July 27, 2005 at 8:53 am

“But there weren’t many knowledgeable participants to begin with, yet the belief that Islam can cause violence has gone *down*? ”

It could be correlated to other things too, like general tolerance, or decreases in xenophobia.
rjschwarz says:

July 27, 2005 at 10:37 am

Just because a third are knowledgable about Islam and a third thinks they are no more violent than the Amish doesn’t mean we’re talking about the same group of people in both cases.
Sister Toldjah says:

July 27, 2005 at 1:45 pm

Hi RJ – it’s kinda hard to figure out who knew WHAT as it related to that poll
Phil Jungbluth says:

July 27, 2005 at 4:09 pm

Mohammed married a six year old girl when he was 50. You decide what kind of prophet and religion that is. How much do you really need to know before you denounce it as a religion any civilized man would follow?
mark says:

July 27, 2005 at 9:06 pm

“Mohammed married a six year old girl when he was 50. You decide what kind of prophet and religion that is. How much do you really need to know before you denounce it as a religion any civilized man would follow?”

What kind of prophet and religion is it? Its the religion of such prophets as David Koresh, and Charlie Manson, and Jim Jones — the religion of some schizophrenic, narcasistic psychopath loser who harbors grudges against his enemies and exploits those around him for his own pleasure and seeks to kill everyone one who opposes him.
actus says:

July 28, 2005 at 8:44 am

“Mohammed married a six year old girl when he was 50. You decide what kind of prophet and religion that is. How much do you really need to know before you denounce it as a religion any civilized man would follow? ”

I guess not all knowledge is correlated with tolerance.

Comments are closed.