Nobody Actually Thinks Islam Is A Race, Study Finds

By theunozblog on 09/12/2014 • ( 0 )

New research has found that almost nobody literally believes Islam is a race. An article published in the McMahon University Journal of Theology by Dr Rainald Robertson posed the controversial question: “Does anyone actually believe that Islam is a race?”

Dr Robertson was astounded to discover that in his 1500 person survey, less than 0.5% of respondents actually believed Islam to be a race.

“I’ve often been described as racist for my views on Islam and it’s always brought me immense gratification to set my accuser straight and politely explain to him that Islam is not a race,” Dr Robertson told Fairfax Media. “After all I’m an educator by trade so I’ve always found it inherently rewarding to be able to leave them better informed.”

“But now I’ve discovered that, statistically, almost all of them knew it already. It’s a huge blow to find out that I’ve actually been of very little help to anyone all this time.”

Dr Robertson’s research demonstrated that not only do very few people believe Islam to be race, but those who decry disparagers of Islam as “racist” are statistically as well-informed as other respondents.

Of the 1500 people surveyed, 1493 replied that Islam was a religion, six stated that it was race and one respondent, a “Jacqui” from Tasmania, responded that it was “terrorism”. Of the six respondents that stated it was a race, only one had ever used “racist” as a pejorative to describe someone who held anti-Muslim views.

Dr Robertson’s research suggests that people use “racist” as an adjective to describe those who endorse discrimination against Muslims because both racism and sectarianism are products of bigotry, hatred and xenophobia and that the link was patently obvious to anyone who wasn’t being deliberately obtuse.

Dr Robertson is hopeful that his research will result in a greater sense of harmony and tolerance between bigoted and non-bigoted Australians.

Nathan Lentern

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