IGNORANCE IS BLISS - DEADLY BLISS - DESCENDING LIKE A GUILLOTINE BLADE ON OUR NECKS

Are Attitudes To Islam Hardening? CHECK OUT http://alanpetersvideos.blogspot.com/ "Not So Funny Reality" video on Ahmadi-Nejad A poll was published on Tuesday this week, compiled by the Pew Research http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=358 Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. This poll had sampled the opinions of 3,002 American adults, and found that 43% of respondents had a favorable view of Muslims, a drop of 5% from a similar poll from March 2004. In the recent poll, 35% had a negative view of Muslims, while in 2004 that figure had been 32%. Amongst religious groups, 51% of white mainstream Protestants and 48% of white Catholics had favorable views of Muslims, while only 24% of white evangelicals held favorable views. Fortunately for Muslim Americans, the respondents viewed them more favorably (53%) than they did Muslims in general. The poll also found that 58% of people said they "knew little or nothing about Islam's practices". (Alan Note: There lies the danger and Islam's insiduous strength - our ignorance of sharia law and the openly stated aim of Islamists to create a Moslem Caliphate to rule the world and IMPOSE sharia on us - similar to imposing Old Testament eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth on our modern society. Sharia laws date back UNCHANGED some 1,400 years and have no place in an enlightened, modern society) Additionally, 70% of Americans questioned thought that their religion was "very different" from Islam. In 2005, the figure for people thinking that their faith differed substantially from Islam stood at 59%. Back in 2001, 52% of people thought that Islam was different from their own faith. In 2001, 31% of people polled felt their religion had "a lot in common" with Islam, dropping to 27% in 2005 and to 19% in 2007. Politically, the most positive views on Muslims come from people who class themselves as "liberal Democrats", with 66% of these having a favorable impression of Muslims. For "conservative and moderate Democrats", as well as "independents", 48% had positive views of Muslims. Amongst Republicans, there is less favorable opinion. Of those with "moderate and liberal" outlooks 41% had positive views of Muslims, compared to only 26% of "conservative Republicans". People who knew a Muslim personally tend to have a more favorable view of Muslims in general. 56% of those who knew Muslims had a positive view, compared to 36% of people with no Muslim associates. The Pew poll, which was conducted between August 1 and August 18, shows that there appears to be a trend which views Muslims and Islam less favorably than three years ago. Other polls from Europe similarly indicate that attitudes towards Islam seem to be hardening, rather than softening. The authors of the Pew report claim that the "biggest influence on the public's impression of Muslims, particularly among those who express an unfavorable opinion of Muslims, is what people hear and read in the media. About a third of the public (32%) - including nearly half of those who offer a negative opinion of Muslims (48%) say what they have seen or read in the media has had the biggest influence on their views." The authors of the report claim that personal experience and education are less influential on people's opinions, though are more frequently cited as influential factors by those with supportive views. The "media" is a broad term. What appears to be lacking in this report is a clear breakdown of which particular aspects, in which areas of media, have made American people develop more negative attitudes. Are people being influenced by negative portrayals in dramas on TV, or by what they see in news reports? There are numerous sites on the internet which are critical of Islamism (political Islam). Are these influential in forming public opinion? If news items on Islamic terrorism are influencing people negatively, it would still be unethical journalism to stop reporting such incidents. Are media-based threats from Al Qaeda influencing public opinion? After the horrific events of 9/11, there was a backlash http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2488829.stm against people perceived to be Muslims. The FBI claimed that hate crimes enacted upon Arabs and Muslims in the United States increased by 1,700% in 2001. There have been reports of Islamist terror plots on US soil since 9/11, but there have been no significant Islamist terror attacks in the US to explain the apparent rise in mistrust displayed in the Pew report. Findings from the recent Pew survey pose other questions. The proportion of people who view Islam as greatly different from their own faith has increased substantially. Are these people becoming more cynical, or are they understanding some of the basic tenets of Islam more clearly than they did before? One group which has maintained a high media presence in the U.S. is the Council on American Islamic Relations. (CAIR) Though highlighting cases of discrimination against Muslims, this group has been actively making the news, as in the case of the "flying imams" and more recently as an unindicted coconspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, currently playing out in Texas. Are CAIR's attempts to highlight "Muslim issues" backfiring and adding to a growing climate of mistrust? Britain suffered a major terrorist attack in 2005, though killing significantly fewer individuals than 9/11 (52 fatalities and about 600 injuries on London Transport on July 7, 2005). In Britain there have been increases in public mistrust of Muslims according to a poll conducted for the Financial Times and published on August 19. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/114ea332-4e8a-11dc-85e7-0000779fd2ac.html This report was carried out by Harris Interactive, and involved a series of questions posed to respondents in the US and in five European countries - Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Britain. Harris' comprehensive findings comprise a 233-page breakdown of responses http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/FTHarrisPoll/HI_FinancialTimes_HarrisPoll_July 2007_Tables_EU.pdf . A shorter summary can be found here http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=801 A combined total of 6,398 adults were questioned in the six countries, between 1 and 13 August, 2007, corresponding closely with the time span for the recent Pew study. When asked: "Does the presence of Muslims in your country pose a threat to national security or not?", British respondents had the highest proportion who answered in the affirmative (38%), with the US and France with the lowest proportion (21% and 20% respectively). (Alan note: Americans are too ignorant on this subject to know better, while the French simply disdain them or are the most infilitrated by them) Those who answered "no danger" were the lowest in Spain (45%) and Britain (45%), with France at the highest (68%). 58% of US respondents did not believe the presence of Muslims in their country posed a national security threat. The issue of whether Muslims were seen to have too much or too little political power in respective countries, there was great uncertainty in the US, with 49% answering "not sure', the highest of the six countries surveyed. (Blissful ignorance again?) Only 20% of Americans thought Muslims in the US had "too much" political power, and 23% thought they had "the right amount". For the British respondents, 46% said Muslims in the UK had "too much power", only 28% were "unsure" and 19% thought they had "the right amount". Respondents in the six countries were asked: "Have Muslims in your country become the subject of unjustified criticism and prejudice or not?". Here, the answers had less variation, but again Britain's attitudes appeared to be different from those in the US. 44% of Britons answered "No" compared to 30% of Americans,. 47% of Spanish respondents said "No" to this question, with France (30%) having the fewest to answer "No' to the question. The highest proportion of those who thought Muslims had suffered undue prejudice came from the French (51%) followed by Italians (49%), Americans (47%), Germans (40%) and Britain in the lowest place at 39%. Respondents were asked "Do you have any friends who are Muslim?." Social relations with Muslims were highest in France, with 69% claiming to have Muslim friends, followed by Britain (38%), Germany (37%), Italy (32%), the US (28%), and Spain the lowest at 27%. Spain appears to have the least social interaction with Muslims, with 70% of respondents claiming to have no Muslim friends, followed by Italy (67%), Germany (61%), the US (60%), Britain (55%) and France with the lowest amount answering "no" (28%). On the issue of terror attacks happening on home territories within the next 12 months, the UK had the highest proportion (52%) who believed this would happen. 32% of Spaniards thought such an attack would happen on their soil, closely followed by 30% of Americans. France, Italy and Germany responded similarly, with between 15% and 18% believing an attack would happen within 12 months in their respective countries. FT poll graphic http://media.ft.com/cms/278bf2c2-4f29-11dc-b485-0000779fd2ac.gif 59% of Britons thought it was possible to be both a Muslim and a citizen of the country, a lower percentage than found in the other five nations surveyed. (With centuries of experience through having had a British Empire and dealing with a wide variety of cultures at a government level, the residual knowledge remains with the British psyche and an inkling of what sharia law means) France had the highest number who believed Islam and citizenship were compatible, closely followed by the United States. Almost 30% of Britons thought it was impossible for a Muslim to be a British citizen and a Muslim (quite correctly according to Islam which allows allegiance only to Allah, not to any State or nation). In France, (with a high enough percentage of Moslems for the tail to wag the dog) only 18% of respondents thought it was impossible for a French Muslim to be a citizen and a Muslim. (Not an opinion shared by devout Moslems themselves). http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=30134&name=Germans+negative+on+Islam,+poll+shows In May last year a national poll was published in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allegmaine which indicated that attitudes towards Islam had worsened in the two years since 2004. 91% of respondents thought that Islam oppressed women (in 2004, the amount was 85%). 83% of Germans thought Islam was dominated by fanaticism (in 2004, the figure was 75%). 71% of Germans questioned felt Islam was intolerant, compared to 66% in 2004. 56% thought the "Clash of Civilisations" had already started. In 2004, 46% believed it had started. The German survey also asked if strict limits should be imposed upon Islam in Germany, and nearly half (40%) agreed. (Possibly based on their decades of experience with Turkish, mostly Moslem, guest workers) Germans were asked if building of mosques should be forbidden in their nation while some Islamic states refused permission for churches to be built. Again, more than half (56%) agreed. More than half (61%) of the respondents agreed that there would perpetually be "major conflict between both faiths". The pollsters concluded: "If one looks at this from a pessimistic viewpoint it could be seen as the start of a downward spiral toward conflict...The clash of civilizations has already begun in the minds of citizens." France appeared in the August Financial Times study to have the best relations with Muslims of the five European countries polled. French respondents were the least concerned if one of their offspring married a Muslim, for example. It is possible that there is a correlation with these responses and the attitudes held by French Muslims. Though using only a small sample from France's estimated 6 million Muslims, a poll study carried out on 513 respondents in August 2006 http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=25&story_id=33213 found some surprising attitudes of tolerance towards French secular values. The study was commissioned by La Vie, a Roman Catholic weekly. 94% of the French Muslims believed people were equal "regardless of religion". 69% said they would accept a Muslim marrying someone outside of their faith. 73% believed in the separation of Church and state, and 46% thought it was acceptable for a Muslim to convert to Christianity. Younger French Muslims aged 18 to 24 were less tolerant of Muslims converting to Christianity, with 56% opposing conversions out of Islam. 31% of this age group opposed marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims. Some of the French Muslims appeared to be rather lax in their faith: 30% never read the Koran, only 17% attended a mosque on a weekly basis, and 49% of respondents claimed that they never went to mosque. Even though 56% of younger French Muslims opposed conversions out of Islam, this is hardly comparable to the situation in Britain. A poll conducted by Populus in Britain, which was published by the Policy Exchange in January of this year found that among young British Muslims aged 16 to 24, 36% believed that a Muslim who converts to another religion should be "punished by death". One in eight young Muslims said that they admired groups such as Al Qaeda which are "prepared to fight the West". 37% of younger Muslims wanted to live under Sharia law. The full report (pdf document) entitled Living Apart Together can be found here: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/libimages/246.pdf . demo http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/01/29/nmuslim29.jpg Britain, probably more so than any of the countries listed in the Harris/Financial Times poll, has tried to force policies of "multiculturalism" onto the general public, and has an administration which attempts to show favor to Islam. The attitudes of British Muslims have not been ameliorated by such policies, if polls are to be believed. The hostility to Western values expressed by Britain's Muslims was highlighted in June 2006 in a survey by Pew http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=254 Global Attitudes. Amongst Muslims of all ages, 81% of British Muslims surveyed claimed to see themselves as "Muslims first", citizens second, compared to 69% of Spanish Muslims, 66% of German Muslims and only 46% of French Muslims. The left-leaning Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1804078,00.html newspaper commented on the 2006 Pew report in an article entitled "Poll shows Muslims in Britain are the most anti-Western in Europe": "The poll found that 63% of all Britons had a favourable opinion of Muslims, down slightly from 67% in 2004, suggesting last year's London bombings did not trigger a significant rise in prejudice. Attitudes in Britain were more positive than in the US, Germany and Spain (where the popularity of Muslims has plummeted to 29%), and about the same as in France. Less than a third of British non-Muslims said they viewed Muslims as violent, significantly fewer than non-Muslims in Spain (60%), Germany (52%), the US (45%) and France (41%). By contrast, the poll found that British Muslims represented a "notable exception" in Europe, with far more negative views of westerners than Islamic minorities elsewhere on the continent. A significant majority viewed western populations as selfish, arrogant, greedy and immoral. Just over half said westerners were violent. While the overwhelming majority of European Muslims said westerners were respectful of women, fewer than half British Muslims agreed." Muslims in Britain, according to this report, showed anti-Semitic attitudes. Only 32% of British Muslims had a favorable opinion of Jews, whereas 71% of French Muslims viewed Jews favorably. The June 2006 poll by Pew surveyed 14,000 individuals in 15 countries. One of the co-chairs of the study, Senator John Danforth (St Louis) said http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002399.html "It seems to me that where they (Muslims) really tilt against the West has to do with values or with lifestyle or with perceptions that the West is a place of selfishness and arrogance and violence. Where do they get that idea? Maybe on television, I don't know." It is significant that a proportion the non-Muslim respondents in the most recent Pew report are, by the authors' admission, finding that the media is fueling negative perceptions of Muslims and Islam. Perhaps a very specific poll should be carried out in the US and elsewhere to specify exactly which areas of the media are creating "negative" perceptions. In Britain, a leftist commentator from the Guardian appears http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2007/S September/opinion_September80.xml&section=opinion&col=to to blame the rise in mistrust of Muslims - as reported in the August Harris/FT poll - entirely upon the media. Attitudes towards Muslims are becoming less trusting in the West, and in Britain, this rise in mistrust seems linked to an increase in physical attacks upon Muslims. Polls are good at indicating trends, but they are not always so clear on the issues of causality. More polls are needed, both to gauge the attitudes of Muslims to the Western countries they live in, and the attitudes of Westerners to Muslims. It is not enough to merely document deteriorating relations. The causes need to be explored more fully, and once identified, they can be addressed. Merely "blaming the media" is not enough. Adrian Morgan