More Gallup Dishonesty
The authors of “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think” continue to produce articles with bits and pieces of their worldwide poll of Muslims with furious spinning to make Muslims look as much like Westerners as possible. This is not surprising – co-author John Esposito has written a number of apologetic books for Islam, including “Islam: The Straight Path“, and the other author Dalia Mogahed is Muslim herself. The idea that this book would be objective is laughable, and I’ve already shown some dishonesty in how the authors present their findings.
A new op-ed by the authors in the Los Angeles Times illustrates their dishonesty as well:
For instance, Gallup found that 72% of Americans disagreed with this statement: “The majority of those living in Muslim countries thought men and women should have equal rights.” In fact, majorities in even some of the most conservative Muslim societies directly refute this assessment: 73% of Saudis, 89% of Iranians and 94% of Indonesians say that men and women should have equal legal rights.
Notice the sleight-of-hand – changing the question from one of “equal rights” to one of “equal legal rights” when asking people in Muslim countries. When Muslims are referring to legal rights, they are not thinking about religious rights. Which means that if you would ask Muslims whether women should be able to have up to four spouses as men are allowed to, the answers would not be the same as to the question they asked. Yet if they really supported equal rights as Esposito and Mogahed claim, then they would by definition support polyandry as much as polygamy.
What about Muslim sympathy for terrorism? Many charge that Islam encourages violence more than other faiths, but studies show that Muslims around the world are at least as likely as Americans to condemn attacks on civilians. Polls show that 6% of the American public thinks attacks in which civilians are targets are “completely justified.” In Saudi Arabia, this figure is 4%. In Lebanon and Iran, it’s 2%.
Again, in this case it appears that how the question is asked is far more important than the supposed answers. Since the authors show that 7% of Muslims condoned 9/11, and other polls show that a far higher number condone attacks on Israeli civilians, the cherry-picking of the answers from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iran proves only that the people answering the poll are more likely to support individual, real world attacks against civilians than some abstract concept of attacking civilians. The fact that there are no Americans publicly celebrating Muslim deaths is proof enough that the methodology for this question was flawed.
Looking across majority-Muslim countries, Gallup found no statistical difference in self-reported religiosity between those who sympathized with the attackers and those who did not…. On the other hand, not a single respondent who condoned the attacks used the Koran as justification. Instead, they relied on political rationalizations, calling the U.S. an imperialist power or accusing it of wanting to control the world.
The authors create a division between politics and religion that is nonsensical in much of the Islamic world. Islam is more than just a religion; it is also a political movement, and the absence of Koranic justification for 9/11 does not necessarily indicate one way or the other that terror-supporters are less religious.
In other words, all that the poll indicates is that the level of religiosity does not indicate a propensity to terror. The implication from the authors that the more religious tend to be more against terror attacks is not borne out, based on the limited information given here.
If most Muslims truly reject terrorism, why does it continue to flourish in Muslim lands? What these results indicate is that terrorism is much like other violent crime. Violent crimes occur throughout U.S. cities, but that is no indication of Americans’ general acceptance of murder or assault. Likewise, continued terrorist violence is not proof that Muslims tolerate it. Indeed, they are its primary victims.
This is astonishingly dishonest. Terrorism, by definition, is political, and can only thrive when the political environment – in this case, the Muslim and Arab cultures that permeate these lands – allow it. Comparing it to violent crime is an incredible distortion, and one that has absolutely no basis in any of the polling numbers given here – it quite literally made up.
(cross-posted at EoZ)
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About the Author: Elder of Ziyon may or may not be a real person. He (or she, or it) blogs at 
There is no decency to be found in islam. By their own admission, the qoran, islamists are corrupt, murderous savages that will stop at nothing to conquer, enslave and destroy anyone that’s not themselves.
The leftists in the West, that can find nothing good to say about their own culture and can find nothing wrong to say about anyone that hates the West and seeks its destruction, are acting as the worst fifth column ever, of self hating traitorous punks bent at any cost on destroying America, Israel and any other manifestation of anything good and decent.
And one of the ways to do this is to disarm the victims by making it difficult to properly identify the enemy, islam. So they try by all means at their disposal to make islamists appear as normal as possible and as close to the West as possible in order to stall any attempt at self defense by the West until it is too late. Look at eurabia, they have almost succeeded and soon, all of it will be part of the global caliphate. Look at the sad spectacle of the Dutch cringing in fear at the possible repercussions of the Fitna movie by Geert Wilders and screaming at the top of their voices that it should be censored and free speech be damned in order not to “offend” the good muslims.
Open your eyes and see. We are at war. The enemy is islam over there and the left over here. Both ought to be destroyed.
Stop and read what you are writing. What you are really doing is fixing your mind to remain at war for ever. It’s time to find a way to coexist.
Do it – let God lead you.
Paul
Paul you are a coward.
You can’t co-exist with people who want to destroy you. Both the Left and the Muslims want to do just that.
Paul, perhaps you rather live on your knees, but I understand that freedom is one thing that is more valuable than even life itself. After all, in the end we all die, but without freedom what is life but mere existence.
Convert or die. That’s the motto for both the Left and Islam.
So, you rather be a slave and convert, that’s your choice I guess. But as for me, life on my knees submitting to the lies of the Left, the lies of the Muslims, is far worst than death.
We all die in the end. But to never have the taste of freedom in my mouth? Nay, I would give up one hundred years of life of a slave, I would give up one thousand years of life as a slave just to taste the sweet nectar of freedom for just one moment.
Kurt – I hear what you are saying. I am not a liberal or Muslim – but I understand that it is time to take a closer look at the enemy and see that it is not Islam that is the enemy, in fact the enemy we have seen is not all that religious. Co-existance is possible – but it begins with facing facts – the fact that some people are violent and want to kill us – the second fact is that it is not everyone. Some people have something to say that is reasonable – and we should listen. Not always agree, but at least agree that we disagree and respect each other. Now the terrorists will never come to this table – but others will and we should find them and work it out. No doubt, it will take time.
The only fate worse then death is the death of your soul for unforgiveness and lack of love for neighbor.
Peace of God to you brother.
Paul
Kumbaya jibberish.
I would think that a worse fate than death is letting others die for your wishful thinking. As far as I’m concerned, your morality is false and phony.
BTW, you know zippo about Islam. In fact, if it weren’t for Islam, all this would have been over a long time ago.
But you go ahead and talk. Soon we’ll have to start doing.
Paul: are you the kind that would have espoused to “coexist” with hitler? There’s no coexisting with somebody bent on your destruction that has sworn and screamed at the four winds that he will dump you into the sea at the first available opportunity and that has tried (and so far failed) to do so, many times. Haven’t you seen the signs of “thank god for hitler” and “hitler was right” in the hands of the stinking arabs? Are you sleeping? Are you a brainwashed leftard? Don’t you know that Israel is daily bombarded by rocket artillery? Do you suggest that Israelis “coexist” with barbarous savages that simply pull a knife on the street and charge anybody they see as Israeli? Are you an anti-Semite? Either Israel ends this problem by destroying her enemies or Israelis go back to the Diaspora. Those that remain will die. Time’s running out. Israel: KILL YOU ENEMIES. All your friends will applaud you. And for the rest: who cares?
Paul the enemy is the Left. Sure you have the Muslims thrown in this time but they wouldn’t be even close to the threat they are if the Left hadn’t weaken the West first.
And no co-existence with the Left isn’t possible. Convert or be destroyed is their motto.
As for the Muslims there is co-existence but not with the more radical elements. There as well it is either convert or be destroyed.
Only through strength and vigilance can freedom and security be maintained. Freedom isn’t the natural state of things. The natural state of things is for the few to enslave the many. But freedom is for the individual human spirit that which makes life worth living. Anything else is just mere existing.
And as for forgiveness, yeah I hate the Left with all my heart and soul. I can not forgive what they have done to nearly destroy the greatest nation ever. I may have the misfortune to see their attacks succeed in my lifetime in bringing down what although may have been as imperfect as is humanity, still was the best chance to spread freedom to the greatest numbers ever. No, there is no forgiveness in my heart for that. Only contempt and a wish that if they don’t suffer on this earth may there be another world for them to suffer in for this.
You miss the entire point – I am doing something. I am inviting God into the equation in place of violence or hatred.
You should too.
Kurt – Hitler was defeated, but it was the cowardice of his own people that allowed him to grow into a monster. I have fought the good fight and found that there is a time for valor and a time for reason – and a time for both. This is a time of Valor and Reason that calls us to a deeperr love of God, the courage to take reasonable action to build a bridge with our neighbors – even those that are or were enemies.
Find forgiveness.
Paul
The Left deserves only contempt.
They are not merely wrong. They are indeed evil. We forget that and we are doomed.
And as for God, well I pray every day that an asteroid lands on Hillary, Obama, and McCain when they are at some place together (or on each of them at nearly the same time in different places). Can you imagine what a spiritual awakening that would be!
And it is the only thing that can save this once great nation.
But as of yet my prayers remain unanswered and time is running out.
There is no time left.
God has abandoned both America and Israel.
It is over.
2012 is four years away and I might not want to believe it, it sure looks like the Mayans might have been right.
But I agree with Kurt. I can never forgive the Left for the pain and destruction they have caused for generations. If there is a Hell may they rot in it!
Paul needs to understand that for us Americans it is not merely theoretical. We just might elect Hitler this year. For Real.
Yeah, Hitler was defeated but it took totally destroying Germany to do that.
Is that what is going to have to happen here? Is America going to have to be totally destroyed?
These are indeed the darkest days America has had to face. With no hope in sight. Practically every outcome leads to destruction.
You know we blame Germany for Hitler and perhaps deservedly so. But what we must realize is that the opposition to Hitler was just as bad if not worse than Hitler. There was no hope in sight. There was no outcome left to Germany that didn’t lead to destruction. No chance for a good outcome.
And now America faces the same situation. Whatever the outcome will be this year there is no way that outcome will be anything but disastrous. No matter what the outcome is there is no chance for good.
Sad, sick, dark days for America indeed.
It’s a three headed coin of evil. So in the end it doesn’t matter much what side it ends up on.
Yeah, it is so easy talking about electing Hitler in the abstract, but America might very well be doing it for real.
Finally Kirk you have found some truth – but mixed it in with evil of your own. There is not a good candidate for the US President this year – and we as a nation will lose ground in the world because of it. But please, even Hilliary is no Hitler – and although misled in terms of Policy McCain and Obama on there worst days could not hard such a great nation.
Pray much.
What will save our nation is returning to the basics:
Living lives of prayer,
Living within our means,
Defending our friends,
Celebrating the achievement of the hard working,
Helping the poor, and
Maintaining a solid defense.
What will not save our nation is:
Hatred,
Anger,
Inolerance of reason,
misplaced bias,
Condemnation,
and a liberal school system teaching falsehood as truth.