Soccer Dad

Fears fears american fears of islam grow

Darryl Fears (and Claudia Deane) report on one of the most commented on stories of the day from the Washington Post Negative Perception Of Islam Increasing The reporters take the opportunity to remind us

Conservative and liberal experts said Americans' attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists.

To which Pillage Idiot responds

Well, gosh, you don't have to be Ann Coulter to notice that virtually all the terrorist attacks on us over the past 20 years have been committed in the name of Islam; to see Palestinian children being indoctrinated with a desire for martyrdom, which involves killing others; or to know that Saudi-funded Wahhabi schools teach a brand of Islam that calls for violence against the West. Apart from a few honorable and courageous Muslims, there is virtually no one who publicly condemns this behavior. Americans largely hear silence.

Though there was an increase in violence against Muslims in America following the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, it subsided the next year and religion based hate crimes are still most often directed Jews and Jewish institutions.

A View from a Height questions the choice of experts Fears and Deane use to illustrate the problem, so he suggests a few of his own

The next time the WaPo needs a real Middle East expert, allow me to suggest Fouad Ajami, Amir Taheri, Bernard Lewis, Martin Kramer, or Daniel Pipes.

Maryland Conservatarian makes the case against one of the Post's experts

Obviously I’m no fan of Professor Cole but here’s some links – you decide if this is a man worthy of professional respect:

Informed Comment (this is Juan Cole’s own blog)
TNR: JUAN COLE'S BAD BLOG. (The New Republic)
"It's called courage": Murdoc Online (follows up on a Juan Cole reaction to the murder of Steve Vincent, a journalist covering the situation in Iraq)

Secular Blasphemy read this

The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.

and responded

Muslims were "often" targeted for violence? I don't recall a significant number of incidents at all.

Well that's partly correct. To say that Muslims "were often targeted for violence" is certainly misleading. The 2002 FBI hate crime report, according to the ADL reported

... a significant portion of the 2001 increase in reported hate crimes appears to be attributable to "backlash" incidents directed at Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, Sikhs, and others perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Reported "anti-Islamic" crimes increased from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001, and the number of hate crimes directed at individuals on the basis of their national origin/ethnicity doubled -- from 911 in 2000 to 2,098 in 2001.

The next year the ADL reported

The 2002 FBI hate crime data, released today and collected under the mandate of the 1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA), documented 7,462 hate crimes – an almost 23 percent decrease from the 9,730 hate crimes reported by the FBI in 2001. The report documents over 1,400 religion-based crimes – more than 65 percent directed against Jews and Jewish institutions.

Clarity and Resolve dismisses the fears raised by the article

... it's our fault that we have this impression, not the mujahideen who are on a 1,400 year death binge or the legion Muslims who refuse to condemn them by name and deed.

Ace of Trump presents a sober set of suggestions that come from Robert Spencer

If Muslims don't want Islam to be perceived as encouraging violence, they should:
1. Stop committing violent acts.
2. Stop justifying those violent acts by reference to the Qur'an and Sunnah.
3. Stop saying violent or hateful things in private when you think no non-Muslims are around.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.

Do these five things, and you'll find, voila, that perceptions of Islam will begin miraculously to improve.

Outside the Beltway nicely sums up the intuitive reactions to the article that attempts to make hay of American small-mindedness toward the Islamic world

That 43 percent have a favorable view of Islam given the events of the past decade or so is, frankly, amazing. I can understand people taking the position that they are neutral toward Islam and that the radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam are perverting the faith. But to actually have a positive view is interesting. Based on what, one wonders? Ditto the majority view that Islam is a peaceful religion.

That only 58 percent thinks that “there are more violent extremists within Islam” than other religions, too, is stunning. What percentage of the terrorist attacks over the last quarter century or so have been committed by Muslims?

Technorati tags: Islam, bigotry.

Posted by SoccerDad at March 10, 2006 12:21 AM