Saturday, December 18, 2004

Survey: Some Americans Favor Restricted Rights for Citizen Muslims

from Cornell News
About 27 percent of respondents said that all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government, and 26 percent said they think that mosques should be closely monitored by U.S. law enforcement agencies. Twenty-nine percent agreed that undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations, in order to keep tabs on their activities and fund raising. About 22 percent said the federal government should profile citizens as potential threats based on the fact that they are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage. In all, about 44 percent said they believe that some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim Americans...

The survey...showed a correlation between television news-viewing habits, a respondent's fear level and attitudes toward restrictions on civil liberties for all Americans. Respondents who paid a lot of attention to television news were more likely to favor restrictions on civil liberties, such as greater power for the government to monitor the Internet. Respondents who paid less attention to television news were less likely to support such measures. "The more attention paid to television news, the more you fear terrorism, and you are more likely to favor restrictions on civil liberties," says Nisbet.

5 comments:

J.R. Boyd said...

Thanks to Lorraine for originally posting on this topic.

J.R. Boyd said...

New year's resolution: Stop watching television news!

Anonymous said...

Like George, I blame the media.

-Salty

Sheryl said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sheryl said...

Quotes I Dig on this Subject:

"Television is called a medium because it is neither rare, nor well-done." Ernie Kovacs --


"I wish there was a knob on the tv to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called brightness, but it doesn't work." Eugene Gallagher --


"There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community." Oscar Wilde--


"Beware of a half truth; you may be getting the wrong half." Unknown--


"There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion." Sir Winston Churchill--


"Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one."  Abbott Joseph Liebling --


"Presidents reign four years, journalists govern forever. " Unknown--


"Whenever things get really bad, there is always some one to assure us amid great applause that nothing has happened and everything is in order." Carl Jung