Great news: majority of Canadians see “irreconcilable” rift between Islam and West

From a story in Macleans (via Jihad Watch):

Results from a recent poll reveal that a majority of Canadians surveyed feel there is an ideological rift between the Muslim world and the West which is “irreconcilable.” Of the 1,500 consulted in the week before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, 56 per cent felt the West and the Muslim world could not overcome their perceived differences. Thirty-three per cent felt they could be reconciled, while 11 per cent did not answer the question.

If a majority of people in the original land of multiculturalism feel this way, what does that tell us? First, it tells us that a majority reject the basic premise of multiculturalism, at least as far as it concerns Muslims. Second, it tells us that there is a constituency in Canada for stopping Muslim immigration. If a person believes that there are irreconcilable differences between the West and Islam, wouldn’t it follow that he would think mass Muslim immigration into a Western country is a big mistake? Further, wouldn’t he believe that it would be preferable for the Muslims already in the West to leave?

It seems to me that this poll provides a basis for a radical shift in our policies regarding Muslims—a shift toward Separationism.

I wonder what result the same polling question would have gotten ten years and five days ago. I wonder what results the same polling question would get in the U.S. today, and in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, etc.

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Ken Hechtman writes:

You wrote:

I wonder what result the same polling question would have gotten ten years and five days ago. I wonder what results the same polling question would get in the U.S. today, and in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, etc.

Fair enough. I wonder what the result would have been six months ago. Or six months from now. Or really any time 9/11 commemorations aren’t front page news.

This is why I don’t trust Jack Jedwab. I didn’t trust him when he ran the Canadian Jewish Congress and I don’t trust him now. If you read the way he spins the results he sure sounds like he wishes he’d gotten a more pro-multicultural result. But he commissioned the poll. He picked the timing to catch anti-Muslim sentiment at a high water mark. Nobody made him do that.

LA replies:

I don’t see any reason to believe that public opinion on such a basic question would have changed significantly just because of the proximity to the 9/11 anniversary, especially given the fact that all the mainstream media coverage and official ceremonies systematically ignored the role of Islam in the 9/11 attack. It may be true, but it would have to be shown.

And you provide no reason to believe that Jedwab’s poll is not to be trusted.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 14, 2011 07:52 AM | Send