'That' opinion poll in The Times
The Times has another one of those bone-chilling surveys about the attitudes of British Muslims to homicide bombings etc, which doubtless will get chewed over in Blogistan and elsewhere.
First things first, I am always highly suspicious of telephone polls, and particularly those that target distinct minorities. My first inclination is to think that if I was a Muslim and was cold called about how I felt about homicide bombings et al, I would be very guarded in how I answered. Conversely, some of us will recall the video nasty scare of some years back, in which a survey purported to show that a very high number of children had seen a video nasty. It turned out that there was at best confusion about what was a video nasty, and at worst that there was a great deal of adolescent braggadocio going on.
Either way, I'm not entirely convinced by the findings, and there is one of the less obvious points in the findings that leapt out at me: "More than nine out of ten Muslims (92 per cent) say their community makes a valuable contribution to British society". Come on, is it really likely that 8% would reckon that they did not?
First things first, I am always highly suspicious of telephone polls, and particularly those that target distinct minorities. My first inclination is to think that if I was a Muslim and was cold called about how I felt about homicide bombings et al, I would be very guarded in how I answered. Conversely, some of us will recall the video nasty scare of some years back, in which a survey purported to show that a very high number of children had seen a video nasty. It turned out that there was at best confusion about what was a video nasty, and at worst that there was a great deal of adolescent braggadocio going on.
Either way, I'm not entirely convinced by the findings, and there is one of the less obvious points in the findings that leapt out at me: "More than nine out of ten Muslims (92 per cent) say their community makes a valuable contribution to British society". Come on, is it really likely that 8% would reckon that they did not?
Labels: war on terror
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on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 at 10:44 am.
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1. There should be no such thing as a "Muslim community" and this is a large part of the problem - that these people have failed to integrate into the British community.
2. What "contribution" does this 92% think it has made? Was this discussed? They - as a distinct and separate "community" - seem to be net receivers.
It is well worth clicking through to BBC's talking point on these issues and sorting by 'most recommended'. While I'm sure the BBC censors a lot of comments, I expect vote rigging is too much trouble.
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