Media Spins/Spikes Disturbing Finding That Quarter of American Muslim Young Men Support Terrorism

Bumped, for a while, as Rush Limbaugh listeners may be checking in on his mention.

...

I'd say that's the headline datum in the poll, wouldn't you?

Your very professional newsmedia knows better, however. They use their j-school expertise to find the truly important stuff in the poll.

Let's check the headlines, eh?

USAToday: Poll: Most Muslims seek to adopt American lifestyle

Wow! "Most!" Awesome!

Personally, I'm a little bit more worried about the 26% of young Muslim males who want to kill me, but it's good to know that "most Muslims" seek to adopt the "American lifestyle." (Which may or may not involve killing Americans.)

Representative quote:

"This is a very positive story for the vast majority of Muslims," says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. "They're highly assimilated, and the largest proportion of their friends are not Muslims."

Terrific.

The survey "clearly shows that the American Muslim community is well integrated in our society," says Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C. "The overwhelming majority of American Muslims reject terrorism and religious extremism."

"Overwhelming majority." 26%-69% on the terrorism justified vs. never justified question amoung young Muslim American males.

Again, I was more hoping for something like a "unanimity."

I ask of Mr. Hooper: Would he feel relieved if I told him right now 69% of young non-Muslim males opposed, but 26% supported, killing you and fellow Muslims due to our anger at their foreign policy?

I don't think so. I think he'd call that "hatred" and "backlash."

So I'm not getting why he thinks that we should be happy that only one in four young Muslim men are open to murdering the rest of us.

Moving on:

The Voice of America is a government outfit. So of course they must give us the straight dope, right?

Poll: US Muslims Feel Post-9/11 Backlash Despite Moderate Outlook

Psst: Some of that "backlash" you feel may be due to the 26% of young American Muslim males who would like to kill Americans. Just a thought. Sometimes people take a little thing like murder personally.

Also, I don't know if support for murder is technically "moderate."

Damn bigoted Americans. Giving us dirty looks and harrassing us just because an alaramingly high number of us support random mass murders against our fellow citizens. The very nerve.

The New York Times owned International Herald Tribune must get it right, right? Paper of record and all.

Muslims assimilate better in U.S. than Europe, poll finds

Better? Yes. US Muslims wish to murder their fellow citizens at rate lower by at least ten percent. Isn't that terrific?

MediaLine finds that this poll actually demonstrates how peaceful American Muslims are. After all, they are optimistic that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is possible:

Pew Poll Shows American Muslims Believe Solution To Israel-Palestinian Conflict Possible

Wow. Certainly that is the most newsworthy statistic one can glean from this poll. Most Muslims believe a "solution" is "possible" in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Given that so many American Muslims support terrorism (and even Muslim apologists tell us that they're mostly referring to terrorism against Israel), we're left to ponder, precisely, what sort of "solution" for the "Israel problem" they may be thinking of, and whether it will be merely a temporary solution or a, let us say, more Final Solution.

It really is amazing: The media is no longer in the business of reporting the most important news, but of deliberately suppressing it.

Thanks to Gekkobear.

More: Like shooting civilians in a barrel--

Chicago Tribune: U.S. Muslims more content, assimilated than those abroad

In fairness, that story carries the subhed: But 1-in-4 youths sympathize with suicide bombers. Though that subhed doesn't show on Google.

Though I don't think that saves them. Imagine this headline from the Chicago Tribune:

Most Southerners Share Values With Rest of America
But 1 in 4 Are Proud To Be Banjo-Strokin', Corncob-Smokin', Cousin-Pokin' Inbred Hillbilly Cannibals

I sort of think the subhed there would be deemed, properly, the most important finding in that poll. (Joke lifted from Just Shoot Me.)

The Pew polling organization itself: Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream

"Mostly." Except for the 1-in-4 males of military age who support terrorism.

How far down does Pew bury its own lede? Well, in "Key Findings," we have to wade through five bullet-points, including ones about such scary-important factoids as "a large majority of Muslim Americans believe that hard work pays off in this society" and "Roughly two-thirds (65%) of adult Muslims in the U.S. were born elsewhere" -- before coming to this:

Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.

Note Pew does not report the actual percentage of young male Muslims who support terrorism -- only noting the percentage is higher than among older Muslims. It then immediately reassures us that the number is quite low, "especially compared with Muslims around the world," but refrains from telling us what this number actually is, so that we can decide if it's "quite low" or not.

26%. "Quite low"? I'd say it's rather high, but then that's me. I have this weird touchiness about being killed by religious maniacs.

I'd say that Pew worked pretty hard to slap some lipstick on this pig, but that might be considered Islamophobic.

NPR: Okay, this one's a gimme. Probably shouldn't bother. But in the interests of completeness: Pew Study Sees Muslim Americans Assimilating.

USAToday's Blog Headline: Poll: Muslim Americans overwhelmingly Democratic, but conservative on many issues

One issue they seem to take a more liberal opinion on: Murder.

Detroit News. Okay, in fairness, they don't want to have their offices blown up. But still: Survey: Muslims largely assimilated in US

It's a big hanging curveball, and of coure the UK Guardian jerks it out of the park. US Muslims more assimilated than British

Another gimme -- The BBC. The gold standard of international reportage:

Muslims 'well integrated' in US

US Muslims tend to feel positive about US but not always welcome
Muslim Americans are largely integrated in US society and moderate in their views, a nationwide survey suggests.

Oh -- and right next to this article on the BBC's webpage? This picture and caption -- from back in January (!) -- for "context:"

US Muslims tend to feel positive about US
but not always welcome

Get that? US Muslims are doing everything they can to assimilate with bigoted Americans, and yet we deface their buildings.

And the one-in-four number? The BBC fails to report it. It merely acknowleges:

In addition, younger Muslims in the US are more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defence of Islam can sometimes be justified.

...which seems cribbed from Pew's front-page digest of its findings. In other words, Allah Pundit at HotAir is actually a more skilled journalist than the entire frigging BBC.

Finally, for fairness. Here's one news outlet that bravely, and accurately, reports the poll's most important headline right in the article's, um, headline:

One in four younger U.S. Muslims support suicide bombings

Which news outlet had the courage and integrity to actually report the unvarnished, unbowlderized news?

Pravda, the infamous former/current propaganda organ of the Russian government.

Actually, clicking on the one link on Google's front page that mentions the support for terrorism angle (from the Malaysia Star -- getting the story right that US papers deliberately get wrong), one can find similar articles (and blog posts) noting the 26% figure.

But obviously, the majority of the media worked very hard here to not report a key finding from a major poll with significant ramifications for US security and foreign policy.

This is what j-school taught them? How to actively withhold information from the public?

Thank God we have Allah, and of course Pravda, to tell us The Truth.

Even More...

Surely the Washington Post wouldn't bury the truth, would it?

Survey: U.S. Muslims Assimilated, Opposed to Extremism

Yup.

posted by Ace at 02:35 PM

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