Monday, September 11, 2006
Al-Jazz polls its viewers
Charles Johnson reports the results of an Al-Jazeera viewer poll, including that 49.9% of the more than 40,000 respondents support Osama Bin Laden.
It does not sound as though this poll was scientific. If it isn't, no conclusions may be drawn about Arab public opinion with regard to the questions asked. That does not mean, however, that we can draw no conclusions at all. It seems to me that one of two statements must be true. If Al-Jazz's respondents are less militant than the Arab-Muslim average, then Bin Laden's support in that world is so strong that it would be very hard to deny that we are in a clash of civilizations. On the other (more likely) hand, if Al-Jazeera's respondents are more militant than the average in the Arab-Muslim world, that would rather directly undermine the theory that Al-Jazeera is a force for pluralism and moderation. If it were, why would it attract such a radical audience?
The good news, I suppose, is that only 27% of respondents "wish to travel to the United States." The published results did not say how many of those people also answered that they support Osama Bin Laden.
0 Comments:
