"And, I was not being condescending. I sensed substantial ignorance on your part." Oh? How is this not condescending, given that you have no idea of my background? The only data you have is that some of my ideas differ from yours. That would seem to suggest that you consider your views on Islam, to use a delightfully mixed metaphor, are ex cathedra and infallible; any with the temerity to disagree are ignorant and wrong.
As to polling, without extensive methodological data, I do not consider it likely that standard opinion polling is statistically valid in a society that does not assume freedom of expression. Going back 30 years or so, I did software support of "opinion polls" of villagers in Vietnam, and saw the principal investigator produce ludicrous results. So, as a general statement, I do not give any credibility to polls of Muslims in nondemocratic societies.
To take your example of "Egypt, the PA and Jordan", even if the respondents answered honestly to well-designed questions, which indeed might be the case in Jordan, I'd have to see the statistical methodology by which the results from these three significantly different populations were combined.
I am perfectly willing and eager to have a substantive discussion, but one of the prerequisites to such is that the participants respect one another sufficiently to believe that each may bring something to the table.
by Howard C Berkowitz on December 1, 2006 at 1:16 PM