greenvison

And yet another thing,,,

The first nuclear bomb was made by a non muslim, used by a non muslim on a non muslim nation.

I am not criticizing your religion, Muslims have their share in trouble making as well, but you CANNOT justify the conclusion of the research without taking history into account. Think out of the box, Think like Thomas Hobbes = ) .Hope that sums it up.

dr_reynolds

I disagree with the notion of tying conservatism to Islamic terrorism. The two are in radical opposition to each other. Conservatives embrase freedom and limited government while this Islamic extremists are trying to limit freedoms (particularly of women) and promote an Islamic government that is highly involved in its people's lives.

joeshmoebx

I have personally known terrorist recruiters, they look for people which think differently (out of the box) with a background in which they can easily understand or adapt to technology, there are other things they look for but an EE major can fit that description.

merper68

You're mixing a narrow American definition of political conservatism with the original broader one: "Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs"

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism)

Radical Islam sure sounds like that sort of philosophy to me. Radical Chrisitanity, too, who happen to identify as politically conservative as well.

GShine_1989

"a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme conservative and religious positions."

I just have to say: What the [beep]? Engineers are probably more driven towards atheism/agnosticism/irreligion than any of the other majors (besides the hard sciences) because of their strong background in science and appreciation for it, which means they would be less likely to fall for religious extremism. Yes, they tend to be conservative politically, but it is more of a libertarian strain of conservatism than mainstream conservatism, i.e. fiscally conservative, not socially/religiously conservative. This is the way it is in the U.S. anyway. But ditching PC-ness here... we all know it is overwhelmingly Muslims that are involved in this. It is different for them (engineers being more religious)?

coolman25

To clarify on my viewpoint... it's pretty much what GShine just said.

First time I've ever heard of engineers associated with being religious. Fiscal conservative? (libertarian) Maybe. Social conservative? No way.

electrifice

I haven't read the article but I'm thinking it explores a link between engineers and ISLAMIST terrorists... then its no wonder it came out like that.
Most third world Islamic countries have a rather different outlook on education as a whole. In general guys mostly study science/engineering anyway, regardless of whether they like it or not, (or whether they harbor terrorist intentions). If you found a guy doing an English major... he'd basically get a *** is wrong with you? So considering terrorism, it would need to attract the manliest of men (lol), which would naturally fall to engineering/biochem, etc. Just look in any top tier engineering program in the US... you'll find a larger concentration of Muslim men in engineering... or in business, which seems to be the new trend.

greenvison

I am an asian myself and let tell you some harsh truths about the quality of education.

1. Pick the major thats right FOR YOUR PARENTS

2. Engineers and Doctors always have jobs and the pay is good

3. If the parent are going to spend 500,000 Ruppees lets say in india or pakis, they EXPECT their kid to earn that back.

4. Ok soo if you see the lot of ppl applying to those high fi schools ( 112,000 applications to NUST, Pakistan 2007) some may turn out be miscreants. big deal, you have molesters and rapists going to college in America, which substitutes the terrorist in asia.

Megaaadi

well its not the matter of religion. A muslim may be liberal but it is highly unlikely. So blaming a single religion is just trying to be dry in water.

Frame

I just skimmed through the Political Views section of that paper, and it includes a big shocker: It turns out that engineering majors are disproportionately in favor of religion and religious views when compared to other majors. This is a complete puzzler, because it is a well established fact that fiscal conservatism and social liberalism correlate with intelligence.

The paper includes a table that you can see for yourself. Also, check out the General Sociological Survey for data on IQ and political views.

*edit*

It would be interesting to see the breakdown of which religions engineers follow. Catholics are typically more moderate than Southern Baptists, etc.