Quite a difference, wouldn’t you agree. Keep your Abbasid gossip and hearsay. Don’t complain about Islamophobia, you deserve it.

Mohamed, we are done with your same song and dance. Please go to LGF, you’ll find lots of company there. Or call up Fox Noise and you could earn become famous and even earn some money for your nonsense. As for MM, we enjoyed the comedy you provided, but the shtick has become boring. Bye, bye. -Amad.

Salaam alaikum everyone,

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who participated in the survey/poll and forwarded it on or contacted people to encourage them to take it. Alhamdulillah the response rate was good with about 825 people taking the survey. This was not at all a bad number for a first time effort in this regards. There were some isolated problems with people not finishing all the questions of the survey and I hope to resolve this in the future by including the number of questions in the initial email so pople will have an idea of how much they need to committ time-wise.

Before I give an overview of the results (a more detailed analysis will be up on the http://www.jmerit.com website later in the month insha’Allah) I did want to ask if anyone would like to volunteer for future efforts. Web surveys are good and the ability to combine that
with paper hand-filled out surveys would be better. If you are part of a class, or attend jumu’ah and are able to get permission from your masjid for handing surveys after jumu’ah please do reply as the help would be great. Also anyone who specializes in statistics and
statistical methods would be a great assett and I would love to hear from you. Otherwise I certainly appreciate everyone’s time and ask that you forgive my shortcomings.

Once again, all attempts were made to make this a clean and scientific as possible effort, yet the term poll will be used. I will explain
methodology on the website later this month for those who are interested in why the poll was conducted this way, the advantages it
has over other survey methods as well as the disadvantages. Also, it should be remembered that this is more of an internal study to help Muslims recognize the patterns in their communities so that we can all make educated efforts to better protect, educate and motivate our communities insha’Allah.

The survey contains a large amount of Bias. The questions are heavily inclined to love, peace and coexistance with the disbelievers.

So you have 4 responses inclining to love and praise of the jews and one response with condemnation. (the variable question even says Allah PRAISED them as ahl kitaab)

Likewise there are 4 responses of reporting suspicious activity to the police and one response completely turning a blind eye.

(No Al Qaedah or millitants member is going to be discussing an attack in a mosque or among common people)

You question on suicide bombing say what do you think about ( stapping explosive and blowing yourself AMONGST A CROWD OF PEOPLE)

I’m not saying the survey contains bias, I’m saying the survey is extremely biased.

email from dr. ali:

Salaam alaikum everyone

I apologize for continuing to annoy everyone but I know there a number of you who have yet to take the survey. Everyone is busy for sure but it will only take 5 minutes of your time and the poll closes in just 4 days subhanAllah! Briefly I will take a moment to tell you why this survey is so important to participate in …

About 4-6 weeks ago a research group in the US, the Pew Research Institute released a study that made certain claims about Muslims in America that were viewed with great negativity in many media circles. Particularly they tried to extrapolate one of their figures to “prove” that over one million terrorists live in the US and that they are under the age of 25. The poll that I have arranged of course doesn’t have the financial or institutional back-up to discredit the Pew report nor is that the main intention; yet our poll does show the public that we take these issues seriously enough to do some internal investigation and find ways to address the problem. Furthermore, from the responses received thus far there is a great deal of valuable
information that can be used to benefit our community.

There have also been those who viewed the questions with a lot of skepticism and wondered why the focus on terrorism. As Muslims, we cannot live with our heads in the sand and ignore the issues around us. People around us in the West are very scared due to what they read and hear. This does concern us greatly since Allah has sent us to spread peace and with that security. The Prphet (saas) has commanded us with “bashiru wala tunafiru” – bring people closer and don’t drive them away. I already know that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are those who are tolerant, peaceful and concerned about making this
world better and safer. Yet, your neighbors don’t know that and the public in general doesn’t know that. So make your voice heard on these issues and remember that this is primarily an internal study meant to help give us direction. It has no intention of hurting anyone and is totally anonymous.

The survey again can be accessed from http://www.jmerit.com or directly right now through:

http://www.AdvancedSurvey.com/default.asp?SurveyID=53636

For those who have already taken it – may Allah reward you for your time and concern – please don’t take it again of course, but try your best to encourage your friends at the masjid and of course your parents, siblings and/or children to also take it. You can help so much this way. The deadline is Monday insha’Allah and afterwards it will take a few days to process the results and then post them with analysis and recommendations insha’Allah. Please once again forgive me for taking your time but I wouldn’t if this wasn’t so important. Barak Allahu feekum wa jazakum Allahu khayr.

Dr. Ali Shehata

you said,

The Abbasid fiqh also used the prophet Muhammad as its spokesman

Is that so? Since you at least believe in the Quran, can you tell me who did Allah(swt) appoint to reveal the Quran to, and explain it to us, and to be its “spokesman”

furthermore, can you please tell us what exactly it is you suggest we do or follow since mainstream islam is obviously not correct in your eyes.

lastly, have you read any of the books we directed in response to your previous arguments on other posts or do you just prefer to troll and post drivel without engaging anyone in an actual intellectual and meaningful discussion?

Jazzak Allaahu Khayr for your efforts. I already filled out the survey immediately after hearing about it on Tariq Nelson’s blog.

As I’m sure you know, since this is not a survey with random sampling, the results are not scientific — no one can say they represent the views of the Muslims in general. The best that one can say is that they represent the views of Muslims who happen to view these websites and who happen to desire to fill out the survey…which since its been made clear that the goal of the survey is to provide different results than other surveys which have been in the media is a clearly biased sample in many ways.

I understand that you are doing the best you can and I applaud the effort and support it, but I just wish more stress was placed on the second aim you mentioned (to see what issues exist in the Muslim community in order to address them) and the encouragement be made to people to be honest rather than giving the people the idea there are right or wrong answers. Of course to many of the questions there are right or wrong answers, but if we want the survey to be helpful we want people to answer what they really think, not what they think they are “supposed” to say on the survey.

Allaah knows best.

This is just my reaction and my advice — maybe some clarification would help me to understand better. It is not meant to be negative criticism. Again, Jazzak Allaahu Khayr. I am in support of such efforts and just want them to improve. For another important effort promoting research and dialogue in the community on these issues I encourage everyone to check out http://www.muslimsforasafeamerica.org

In the survey, I didn’t get that question where you ask, “Which of the following best describes you?, and then you go on to mention, sunni, shia, ikhwani, sufi, salafi…..

Are you trying to say that Ikhwanis, Sufis, Salafis are not Sunnis? IMHO, the various groups should have been kept under a different question. That question should be changed.

Salam

The survey is already in progress, so we can provide suggestions that can be incorporated in future surveys. I am sure Dr. Ali appreciates all the suggestions for improvements. For now, let’s try to answer to the closest degree, and move on. The important point is to get it done. Also, if we have more suggestions, etc., please provide them in a respectful manner (not that Br. Khalid wasn’t respectful) and for the purpose of enhancements to future surveys, NOT this particular one. You cannot change a survey in progress because it will void all the results -MM