Killing in the name of religion
The Daily Star reports today
1 IN 3 KIDS ‘TO KILL FOR ISLAM’
and goes on to say
ONE in three British Muslim students supports the idea of killing in the name of Islam.
The figures were uncovered by Wikileaks’ publication of a secret US diplomatic message.
The memo quotes a poll carried out by the Centre For Social Cohesion, which quizzed 600 Muslim students at 30 UK universities.
I looked at the Centre For social Cohesion report back in 2008, when it came out and was reported by the Daily Mail and other newspapers, so this is hardly a revelation that Wikileaks uncovered. What the Mail failed to report then, and what the Star fails to report now, is that 28% of those students, interviewed at UK universities selected because they had the most active Islamic Student Organisations, said it was acceptable to kill in the name of Islam if that religion or way of life was under attack, while 53% of Muslim students said it was never acceptable. Which puts the data into a slightly different context. Is it acceptable to kill if your religion is under attack, or if your 'way of life' is under attack? That's a slightly different question. And slightly different from the "It found 32% of them supported killing for religion" claimed by the Daily Star.
But what does that matter? What does it matter at all? The survey has done its job; the think-tank has done its job; the tabloids have done their job - and the result is a misleading picture of what young Muslim students think. Not only that, but the misleading picture appears to have been bought by diplomats, too. Mission well and truly accomplished.
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December 23rd, 2010 - 11:50
I think this is another example of the media eating itself (not just a habit of the right). It is always much easier this time of year to turn the human-centipede into the human doughnut (with a few quick stictches) and head down the pub.
But then, we say this every year (or every day). How do we fix it?
December 23rd, 2010 - 11:56
Sorry, I mean that left-wing-commie-pinkos like myself tend to moan about this sort of thing a lot. Not that we all create human doughtnuts and pop-off to the pub as some sort of christmas ritual…
Aside from fighting against cultural pollutants with our own output (which is a bit like saying you’re going to reduce the white noise by making your own), what can be done?
December 23rd, 2010 - 12:36
What we really need to be concerned about if the number of Muslim children doing degree courses… Oh was the headline another distortion? Sorry, missed that.
December 23rd, 2010 - 12:42
The worrying thing is that they quote it as being part of the Wikileaks revelations that everyone assumes are credible.
December 23rd, 2010 - 13:01
@TomBeasley I guess the logic people are using is that “if it was a secret it must be true”? You an see how it happens – we’re all ready to believe we’re being lied to so when something says “confidential” on it we assume it must be “true”.