media spin

What a difference perspective makes! Pew released a poll recently that, depending on your perspective, indicates that American Muslims are either hard-working, well-integrated believers in the American Dream or are rabid terrorists that threaten our way of life. Same poll...different spin.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com has an excellent analysis of how this Pew poll has driven right wing American nuts into a frenzied hysteria about the Islamic threat from within. Seen through the eyes of those who already feel that Islam is evil, the Pew poll "confirms" their prejudices. Focusing on things like 26% of American Muslims under 30 believe suicide bombings are sometimes justified, the right wing fools on some sites cry out "Holy Shit" and are trying to portray American Muslims as deserving of the prejudice and illegal detentions that some are subject to. Right wing America is SCARED SHITLESS of the Muslims among us.

But the odd thing is, taken from a different perspective, American Muslims appear far more comfortably integrated into American society than Muslims are in any European nation. Looking at the Pew poll of American Muslims from a British perspective, the headline reads: "Muslims 'well integrated' in US." Here are some excerpts from the poll that right wingers in America call "hair-raising" and use to justify their own bigotry: (quotes from the BBC article)