Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - muslim islamist popularity

good points moses. if i had to guess about the numbers of people supporting the jihadists movements/islamists in the sahel, i would say the vast majority do not support them, but enough do--out of disgust with their govt, esp in mali--to make the tacit support significant. maybe we have to take each case separately. for instance, it would be nice to have a free and fair election in iran, before we could know whether the mullahs' govt was popular. the revolutionary guards in iran have hijacked everything--military power, economic controls and money, and political processes. i can't believe they'd win a fair election, but i don't know how much that spills over to the ayatollahs.

in places like egypt the more the govt became corrupt, the more popular the muslim brotherhood became, but how do you measure that support?

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2021 9:15 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - muslim islamist popularity

 

Ken, I wouldn't put much stock in this poll/survey because it is misleading and did not, in my opinion, pose the right question. It's like asking people in Germany or Europe what they think of the Nazis. The result would be similar to what Pew found in regard to views about AlQaeda in the Muslim world. 

Did the pollsters really expect large numbers of people in the Muslim world to endorse a terrorist organization that is a byword for bloodletting and has attracted undeserved hostility and reputational baggage to their faith?

A more helpful and illuminating survey should have asked specific questions about extremist views as well as views on political Islam and violent jihad in Muslim countries.

More broadly, no one on this list  needs to be lectured on the inherent malleability of statistical discourses—on how statistics can sometimes obscure more than they clarify. You can make statistics say anything depending on how you frame the questions.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 28, 2021, at 1:36 AM, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:



this issue came up earlier: how popular is al qaeda in muslim lands. this is an answer in a brooks column:

 Across 11 lands in which Pew surveyed Muslims in 2013, a median of only 13 percent had a favorable opinion of Al Qaeda.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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