Al-Qaida, Islamic State Group Struggle for Recruits

Charles Kurzman, “Al-Qaida, Islamic State Group Struggle for Recruits,” The Conversation, September 3, 2021. Al-Qaida was planning two sets of terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. On Sept. 11, 2021, as Americans commemorate and mourn the lives lost that Tuesday morning 20 years ago, it is important to remember the second plot as well – the attacks that didn’t happen. As strange as it may sound, revolutionary Islamist groups suffer from recruitment problems as any other organization does. More…

Breakthrough Infections in Less-Vaccinated States

Charles Kurzman, “Breakthrough Infections in Less-Vaccinated States,” August 17, 2021. Breakthrough infections are more than twice as common in less-vaccinated states than in more-vaccinated states, according to a massive survey by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University.

Infections among the unvaccinated are almost twice as common in the 10 least-vaccinated states, as compare with the 10 most-vaccinated states.

In Louisiana, where more than a quarter of respondents said they were not vaccinated, 11 out of 1,000 unvaccinated adults reported that they had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous two weeks, compared with 4 out of 1,000 vaccinated Louisianans.

The infection rate for vaccinated Louisianans is higher than the rate for unvaccinated respondents in Maryland, where only one tenth of respondents said they were unvaccinated. More…

Occupational Shortages After the Vaccine Rapture

If Covid-19 vaccines are deadly, as some conspiracy theorists claim, then America’s occupational structure may look a little different after the vaccine rapture. For example, there are more than 200 preschool and K-12 teachers among every 10,000 vaccinated Americans, but fewer than 100 among every 10,000 unvaccinated Americans, according to a large-scale survey of adult Facebook users conducted by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University. More…

Masked and Vaccine-Hesitant

According to a survey of U.S. Facebook users conducted by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University, most vaccine-hesitant respondents reported that they wore a mask outdoors all or most of the time. More…

The ACSS and Data Preservation for the Public Good

Charles Kurzman, “The ACSS and Data Preservation for the Public Good,” presentation on panel, “Knowledge for the Public Good,” Arab Council for the Social Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon (online), April 10, 2021. Overview of the ACSS Dataverse, a data archive for social science research on the Arab region, which aims to preserve materials for the benefit of future generations of researchers. A video of the panel is archived on Facebook.

The Global Wave of Constitutional Revolutions, 1905-1915

Charles Kurzman, “The Global Wave of Constitutional Revolutions, 1905-1915,” in David Motadel, editor, Revolutionary World: Global Upheaval in the Modern Age (Cambridge University Press, March 2021), pp. 111-129. Though later upstaged by socialist, fascist, nationalist, and other movements, the pre-World War I wave of constitutional revolutions marked a turning point in the history of all of the countries it affected. More…
Adapted from Charles Kurzman, Democracy Denied, 1905-1915 (Harvard University Press, 2008).

How Much Does Working at Home Lower Covid-19 Infection Rates?

According to a daily survey of more than 50,000 Facebook users conducted by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University, people working outside the home became significantly more vulnerable to Covid-19 in Fall 2020. But recently released survey results, aggregated by self-reported race and Hispanic ethnicity, show that working at home reduced infection rates only for respondents who self-identified as white and non-Hispanic. Among respondents who self-identified as Hispanic, or as Black and non-Hispanic, infection rates for people who worked at home and people who worked outside the home were higher and not statistically different from one another. More…

Mask-Wearing and Biden Vote-Share, by County

Counties where more people reported wearing masks in October 2020 were more likely to vote for Joseph Biden for president in November 2020.

Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2020

Charles Kurzman, “Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2020,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 14, 2021. Seven Muslim-Americans were arrested or killed during alleged involvement with violent extremism in 2020, the lowest total since 2008. This continues the decline since the peak of 90 cases in 2015. Islamic extremism played almost no role in the considerable unrest that the United States experienced in 2020. The total number of fatalities in the United States from Muslim-American violent extremism since 9/11 remained at 141. Over this same period, there have been more than 309,000 murders in the United States. More…

Examine the data for yourself here. Previous versions of this annual report are available here.

Working Outside the Home and Prevalence of Covid-19 in the United States

Working outside the home has gotten significantly more dangerous since mid-November in the U.S.

Ten Years After the Arab Spring: The Arab World’s Dictators Are On Notice

Charles Kurzman, “The Arab world’s dictators are on notice – they know that their populations desire and demand government of decency,” Reaction, December 17, 2020. On the morning of December 17, 2010, La Presse de Tunisie led with a story about President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s meeting with the foreign minister of Qatar. The newspaper could not have known that a young man in central Tunisia would set himself on fire in protest later that day, or that mass protests would follow, sweeping Ben Ali and his coterie from power less than a month later, after twenty-three years of dictatorial rule. More…

Who Polices the Police?

Charles Kurzman, “Who Polices the Police?”, October 9, 2020. Deaths caused by law enforcement officers rose 43 percent between 2001 and 2018, the latest figures available, while other fatal assaults fell by 16 percent. Non-fatal injuries caused by legal intervention – injuries serious enough to require a visit to a hospital emergency department – rose by 23 percent, while hospitalizations caused other non-fatal assaults fell by the same proportion. The disparity between trends in police violence and other forms of violence raises a time-honored question in political philosophy: Who polices the police? More…

Covid Disparities in the United States

Charles Kurzman, “Covid Disparities in the United States,” September 9, 2020. As Covid-19 has spread throughout the United States, poor and minority neighborhoods have been particularly hard-hit. According to an ongoing survey of more than 10 million Facebook users, respondents in the poorest quartile of zipcodes have been 63 percent more likely than other respondents to have tested positive for the coronavirus. Respondents in minority-majority zipcodes have tested positive at a rate 58 percent higher than respondents in zipcodes with a majority of non-Hispanic whites. More…

Racial Inequality in the United States: Median Family Net Worth, 1983-2016

June 5, 2020.

Middle East Research During Time of Crisis

Charles Kurzman, “Middle East Research During Time of Crisis,” Forum on Remote Research Possibilities, UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, May 18, 2020. This is not the first crisis in Middle East studies. From world wars to crackdowns on academic freedom, each generation of scholars has had to devise creative approaches to overcome obstacles to research. In this time of pandemic, I’d like to offer two historical examples and five possible paths forward. Video; slides with hyperlinks.

Thank You, Civil Society

Charles Kurzman, “Thank You, Civil Society,” March 23, 2020. As COVID-19 spread around the world, it has been heartwarming to see civil society roar into action. In a decentralized system such as the United States’ that leans heavily on nongovernmental and local institutions, the mobilization of civil society – however chaotic-seeming and inconsistent – is the result of thousands of groups taking their responsibilities seriously. Even a responsible White House would have had difficulty coordinating all of these organizations. Thank you, civil society. You are amazing. More…

The 6 Countries in Trump’s New Travel Ban Pose Little Threat to US National Security

Charles Kurzman, “The 6 Countries in Trump’s New Travel Ban Pose Little Threat to US National Security,” The Conversation, February 6, 2020. “Over the past two decades, how many people have been killed in the U.S. by extremists from the six countries on the Trump administration’s new travel ban list? The answer is zero, according to data I have collected from Department of Justice records and other sources. Immigrants from these countries constitute less than 1% of terrorism cases in the United States, and none of the cases in the last two years.” More…

Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2019

Charles Kurzman, “Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2019,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 21, 2020. Twenty-four Muslim-Americans were arrested for alleged involvement with violent extremism in 2019, higher than the previous year but lower than the peak years of 2014-2016. This year’s annual report also presents new data on the lengthening period between radicalization and attempts at violence, allaying concerns voiced by counterterrorism officials about a quickening pace of ‘flash’ to ‘bang.'” More…

Examine the data for yourself here. Previous versions of this annual report are available here.

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