I’m finally done with my last paper. I didn’t sleep for the last two nights, so now that school’s out, I’ve been getting some sleep. Sorry for the black-out on posting.

The big news yesterday was Cornell’s assessment that a large minority of Americans support the curtailment of Muslim’s civil liberties. They also found that among more ‘highly religious’ people were more oppressive in this respect. (Frankly I would be very suprised if Cornell found out anything good about ‘religious’ people. And I wonder, does ‘highly religious’ = Christian, or do they mean all religious people — Christian, Muslim, . . . )

Both Power Line and Sean Gleeson do a good job of analysing this report. They both remark that although the headline sounds exciting, when the actual data is scrutinized the results are hardly newsworthy. Hindrocket writes:

“The Cornell report is available here. The report is odd in that it nowhere discloses the exact questions that were asked. Still, it is easy to see how misleading the report the AP coverage are.

“The Cornell survey sought to address, among other issues, “possible restrictions on civil liberties of Muslim Americans.” The fundamental problem with the report, and press coverage of the report, is that most of the questions asked had nothing to do with restricting civil liberties. The actual results obtained by the Cornell researchers are shown below:

Statement:

“‘All Muslim Americans should be required to register their whereabouts with the federal government.” Agree: 27% (Again, the survey report is surprisingly unprofessional, as there is no breakdown of the percentage who disagreed, as opposed to expressing no opinion.)

“Mosques should be closely monitored and surveilled by U.S. law enforcement agencies.” Agree: 26%

“‘U.S. government agencies should profile citizens as potential threats based on being Muslim or having Middle Eastern heritage.’ Agree: 22%

“‘Muslim civic and volunteer organizations should be infiltrated by undercover law enforcement agents to keep watch on their activities and fundraising.’ Agree: 29%

“Of the four measures suggested above, only one–registering Muslims’ whereabouts with the federal government–would constitute a “restriction on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans.” It would, I think, be unconstitutional. But the other three are not infringements of civil liberties at all.”

Update: Curious fact: According to Ryan Horn (Cornell conservative alum) both authors of this report, James Shanahan and Eric C. Nisbet are registered Democrats.