Heretical Librarian: Thanksgiving Hiatus

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving to all, posting resumes on Sunday.

Anonymous said...: Can I have your assistance in some research I am conducting for a term paper? The hypothesis I am examining is that the Internet sites promoting fear and/or hatred of Arabs and Islam in the majority of cases turn out to be Jewish-run.

What makes the question particularly interesting, at least to me, is that the results seem to bridge the liberal/conservative divide. The "Islamo-fascist" theme that I am investigating is being promoted by spokesmen across the political spectrum (from Bernard Lewis and Thomas Friedman on the left to Daniel Pipes and Charles Krauthammer on the right).

Of course the name Durant seems to contradict my findings. But on the other hand I also find what seems to be confirming evidence: five of the last seven posts here concern either Islam or Israel.

So if Mr. Durant does not consider it too personal, I wonder if he would tell me whether he identifies himself as Jewish? I would be happy to share my statistical findings to date, if you are interested. Once I have gathered the data, in my next stage I hope to begin exploring the question of motivation.

(If you are a Rapturist, I apologize. I recognize that this is a possibility, but I have found that this group, while much discussed, has actually a very tiny presence on the Internet, particularly when compared to Jewish Zionists.); 1:22 PM

Heretical Librarian