Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The U.S. unemployment rate jumped, the Afghan runoff election was cancelled and the House of Representatives passed a health care bill last week. But those stories all took a back seat to coverage of the killing spree at Fort Hood Texas, which quickly became a story about Islam and possibly, terrorism.
European campaigns to ban burqas, the Swiss vote to bar new construction of minarets and attempted terrorist acts in the United States have renewed questions and concerns about the compatibility of Islam with Western society. Swiss-born scholar and philosopher of Islam Tariq Ramadan has written and spoken on the subject, generating widespread debate and reaction. […]
A majority (55%) of adults said there are conflicts between immigrants and people born in the U.S., substantially more than see such conflicts between blacks and whites or the young and old.
Bloggers last week returned to two issues that generated interest in recent weeks. For the second time in a month, Afghanistan led the news in the blogosphere. And musician Dave Matthews sparked a second round of heated online debate with some comments about racism. On Twitter, for this week at least, the focus moved beyond Twitter itself.
This report uses Decennial Census data to examine the fraction of young males incarcerated in correctional facilities. This may be problematic because the American Community Survey and more recent Census public use micro data do not reveal if a youth is incarcerated in a correctional facility. Rather the micro data reveals if the youth is […]
For the purposes of this report, sectarian differences among Muslims were simplified into two categories: Sunni and Shia. It should be noted, however, that both these groups contain self-identified Muslim communities that may be considered heterodox or nonmainstream by other Muslims. Unlike estimates for Muslim populations overall, almost no censuses and relatively few surveys ask […]
A vote in Switzerland to ban the construction of Muslim minarets and controversies over global warming research led conversations in the blogosphere last week. On Twitter, it was a story about a local billboard campaign with unintended consequences. And on YouTube, a pop singer made her second appearance in recent weeks.
A Senate health care bill, new jobless numbers, a recommendation on breast cancer screening, and a presidential visit to China made the roster of top stories in a crowded news week. But perhaps no subject stirred as much media sturm and drang as Sarah Palin’s high-profile book tour.