Tuesday, January 22, 2008

What Part of 'NO' Does Gallup Fail to Grasp?

Something to ponder from the NIS Bulletin:

The Netherlands is the Western country scoring highest on the Muslim-West Dialogue Index. Overall, the Dutch came third after Bangladesh and Saudi-Arabia.

Gallup conducted the survey at the World Economic Forum, but the results are just being published now, with 37 as the average score.

Here are the top three:

  • Bangladesh scored 50
  • Saudi Arabia 46
  • and the Netherlands 44.

These optimists were followed by Canada, Singapore, Iran, Israel, Belgium, Indonesia, the US, the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Malaysia, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Pakistan, Brazil and Russia.

There are some surprises here. Israel, for instance. They think it is possible to have a Muslim-West “dialogue”? Maybe they weren’t thinking of Israel as part of the West?

But look at the reality of these statistics:

“Roughly 1 in 3 residents of the Netherlands believe the relationship between Muslim and Western communities is getting better, second only to Bangladesh,” the researchers commented. “The Dutch are the most likely to believe the Western world is committed to improved relations with Muslim societies (72%) and among the most likely to say they are personally concerned with this issue, though less than half (46%) believes the West respects the Muslim world.”

“Like Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands is the most likely Western country to trust in the other community’s good will; 2 in 5 say the Muslim world is committed to better relations and 1 in 3 say it respects the West. Like the other European countries surveyed, the majority of the Dutch see greater interaction between Western and Muslim worlds as a threat, but their relative optimism in other dimensions pushed them into third place.”

By the way, that’s an interesting spin they quoted: One third of those responding say Islam respects the West. Which means that 66 percent don’t think so. Same stats for those who believe things are getting better Western and Muslim communities: two thirds don’t buy that line, either.

Here’s what Gallup says in summation:

“Unlike Bangladesh, some might expect Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands to be among the most pessimistic about Muslim-West dialogue”, as “they were both directly affected either by military or cultural conflicts between between Muslim and Western communities.”

This survey was done at the Davos Conference where people are usually in a good mood. I wonder what results they'd have gotten from a regular man-in-the-street survey? Would they be proclaiming the good news of a ten per cent positive view of the current bloody mess?


Am I missing something here? A two thirds majority says no, and Gallup thinks they’re not “pessimistic”?

What part of “NO” don’t they understand?


Hat tip: Fjordman


[spinning ends here]

9 comments:

Afonso Henriques said...

Typical.

If you were to be in, say, Europe, you will not post this at all.
It is getting to common over here.
Sad, though.

Homophobic Horse said...

They can't understand 'no' because it would require abandoning their global united "universal" humanity eschaton. That report is plastered with cod metaphysics. I forsee great suffering and trauma involved in the abandoment of universalism.

Henrik R Clausen said...

Funny. The news here in Denmark are that we are the most 'Islamophobic' of all countries.

MSM is of course calling in the usual dhimmi experts to explain us that this is wrong. We're laughing :)

From Uriasposten.

Zonka said...

I have a post about this here

Gaeidhil said...

Perhaps Mr. Gallup & Co. would like to explain who exactly paid for his minions to conduct this "poll".

" “Like Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands is the most likely Western country to trust in the other community’s good will"

Let's clarify that statement...

1) The Netherlands is in no way anything like saudi arabia. To suggest such a fallacious conclusion is akin to pissing in your own beer to improve the head.

2)saudi arabia should in no way be considered in a league with Western countries. We could wallpaper all of saudia arabia with western currency and it still would be the wellspring of anti-western animosity.

3)There is no debate about the fact that saudi arabia has cause not "to trust in the other community’s good will". What is problematic is that the relationship does not warrant reciprocity given their unrelenting export of violence swaddled in money, swaddled in religion, swaddled in money.

Gaeidhil said...

Correction


There should not have been a negative in that sentence. It should have read:

3)There is no debate about the fact that saudi arabia has cause "to trust in the other community’s good will".

History Snark said...

"the majority of the Dutch see greater interaction between Western and Muslim worlds as a threat"

And yet, they interpret this as the Dutch being optimistic.

This might well be the best spin job since the Clinton administration.

Profitsbeard said...

Theo Van Gogh could not be reached for comment.

Tuan Jim said...

100% - 44% = 56%