Kesher Talk

CAIR Canada fiddles its own polling north of the border: Like the bogus poll put out by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) (debunked by yours truly on Monday), the Canadian CAIR outfit ran its own email, etcetera poll. Polling "296 Muslims from across Canada," CAIR Canada discovered that 60 percent claimed to have experienced bias or discrimination since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and 82 percent claimed to know another Muslim who had faced such troubles - a similar result to what CAIR discovered in their poll in the U.S. CAIR Canada's chair even had a Globe & Mail article on September 12 bemoaning the state of things.

But because the poll was done by email and simply handed out to people at whim, it amounts to nothing. I've read tea leaves that were more scientific than CAIR Canada's poll.

Here is the letter to the editor I just submitted to the Globe & Mail:

The poll referred to by Sheema Khan, conducted by the Council on American Islamic Relations, Canada, is garbage.

Only a random sample survey could come up with results representative of the Canadian Muslim experience. CAIR Canada's poll, conducted by e-mail and handed out to whomever wanted to respond, is a self-selected sample. It only represents the opinions and experiences of the people who happened to be contacted and respond.

There were surely acts of bias and discrimination against Canadian Muslims following 9-11. But CAIR Canada's silly attempts to document them unnecessarily belittle the problem.

posted by Howard @ 9/12/2002 04:49:48 PM