A startling population report has just been published by the American Jewish Committee debunking the myth of potent Muslim voting power.
Since September 11, the media has used estimates of the Muslim population in the United States of 5-8 million. However, the report, prepared by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago, says that none of the 20 publicized estimates “is based on a scientifically-sound or explicit methodology. All can probably be characterized as guesses or assertions. Nine came from Muslim organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Student Association, the Council on America-Islamic Relations, the American Muslim Council, and the Harvard Islamic Society or unspecified 'Muslim sources.' None of these sources gave any basis for their figures.”
The report goes on to describe the seemingly purposeful effort to inflate Muslim population figures and concludes:
Estimates of Muslim population in the United States 1) vary greatly, 2) are seldom based on any credible scientific methodology, and 3) seem to have been undergoing inflation of late, rising a million from the average claim in 1996-2001 of 5.65 million to a post-September 11 average figure of 6.7 million.
The best, adjusted, survey-based estimates put the adult Muslim population in 2000 at … 1,401,000, and the total Muslim population at 1,886,000. Even if high-side estimates based on local surveys, figures from mosques, and ancestry and immigration statistics are given more weight than the survey-based numbers, it is hard to accept estimates that Muslims are greater than 1 percent of the population (2,090,000 adults or 2,814,000 total).
Thus, the average number being cited by the media at present … is 2.4 to 3.6 times greater than the best available estimates…
The motive of the various Muslim institutions to inflate the population figures is obvious. We hope that the media will now be more careful about being part of the scam.