Pew Make Stupid "Muslim Violence" Poll

So this morning I had Good Morning America on to get my daily dose of Non-news. So there is this "news piece" that discusses a Pew poll that indicates that Muslims agree with violence. That was the lead. 1 in 4 American Muslims agree with violence. So I'm thinkin' "And". Now before going into the actual poll, we really have to see the actual purpose of the "news piece" was to simply slander American Muslims. Lets be serious here upwards of 1 in 2 American Christians agree with violence. Why isn't that news? Why isn't that news since Christians claim to follow a man that was non-violent? Shouldn't THAT particular fact be "news"?

But back to the "1 in 4 American Muslims agree with violence" claim. So they didn't really say what Muslims they contacted for this particular poll. This is important because last I checked African-Americans make up a HUGE portion of the American Muslim population. Given that a large portion of this group are influenced by "any means necessary" Malcolm X, it wouldn't be at all surprising that African-American Muslims may not be averse to "violence." Of course one has to define what "violence" means.

The "news" report went on to "clarify" that the question was whether American Muslims agreed with violence in defense of Islam. That statement can be taken many ways. Someone can take the comment to mean that one should kill or harm someone who "defames" Islam or it could be taken as self-defense or defense of another Muslim who his or herself is being threatened or even the defense of one's Mosque. While I personally have issues with the first suggestion, the latter are pretty much a given.

Overall, the "news piece" was simply a piece of propaganda because it reported on nothing that a thinking person could not have figured out on their own. Nor did it put the question in any real perspective. Given the violence that American Christians are quite willing to visit on Muslims, I'd think that the 1 in 4 is a pretty small number and the real news would be in questioning why American Christians not only "agree" with violence against non-Christians, but why they actually commit this violence on a pretty regular basis.

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