The Myth of the Moderate Muslim?

[Ben Davis]

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The number of respondents is very low; given the number of muslims in Europe, this sample size can't be considered representative (I just put it through my sample-size calculator and was given a 60% confidence level). Only having Turkish & Morrocan muslims as respondents may give bias and there's no split by islamic denomination (e.g. sunni, shia, suffist etc.). Additionally, some of the countries in question have enacted legislation to control islam (e.g. France banning the niqab) which could further skew the results. The questions are very broad and don't try to identify 'flavours' of fundamentalism.

There are some good points to this survey: using countries with different % muslims amongst their populations, the definitions of fundamentalism, control groups were used, comparisons to the majority religion were made for context.

Overall, I can't say I'm satisfied with the results. If they can expand the sample population to something more representative, provide better interpretation by having better definitions of respondents and remove some of the crass generalisation by increasing the number of questions then I'd be more prepared to listen.

It's an interesting start though.

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I would think that there would be more moderate Moslems among Turkish and Moroccan immigrants than among Saudi or Yemeni immigrants, for instance.

Indeed. I'm not denying the possibility that the results might be pertinent, just that they're unreliable given the factors that I listed. There's so much misinformation out there and this is such a sensitive subject that published studies, in my opinion, should hold themselves to the very highest standards.