That Dem Sanchez criticized for her statistical analysis of literal Islam

Currently a member of the House, and running for U.S. Senate vacated by Barbara Boxer, California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez was criticized Friday after saying that as many as 2 our of 10 Muslims would employ terrorist tactics to establish a caliphate.

She may be slightly overestimating but she probably isn't far off as many pundits believe the number is somewhere between 5 and 20 percent.

But like most liberals, she retreated when the going got tough and responded to the criticism by saying the estimate she gave didn't reflect how she views the American Muslim community, and that most Muslims around the world are committed to peace.

"I believe that Muslim Americans are fully committed to the security and prosperity of our country," she said in her U-turn statement. "I stand with them as my fellow Americans. They are law-abiding citizens who love our country."

And yadda, yadda, yadda.

She made the original statement in a Larry King's "PoliticKING" interview, saying that between 5 and 20 percent of Muslims want a strict Islamic state, or caliphate, and would use terrorism to impose their views. Ironically, Larry King, who is Jewish, is probably hated by 90% of Muslims throughout the world simply due to his religion--it's in the Koran.

This was Sanchez's second political screw-up, but at least this one occurred because she told the truth about Muslim sympathies. 

The other incident happened earlier this year after a video she made became public showing her making a war-cry referencing Native Americans (who used to be called 'Indians'). Fellow Democrats were appalled at her lack of political correctness and attacked her viciously.

But back to the caliphate thingy--she said that Muslims "desire for a caliphate and to institute that in any way possible, and in particular go after what they consider Western norms, our way of life. They are willing to use and they do use terrorism, and it is in the name of a very wrong way of looking at Islam."

Spokesman Haroon Manjlai, of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trials linking that organization to terrorism funding, called Sanchez's statement harmful and perplexing.

It certainly would be harmful to CAIR if not only conservatives, but Democrats as well, took an honest, hard look at the growing problem with the literal practice of Islam in the United States.

Manjlai said that "Using inaccurate polls that reinforce false stereotypes about the Muslim community, at a time when right-wing bigots are calling for fascist measures against Muslims, is inexcusable."

Sanchez, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said she was referring to estimates derived from limited data and limited research.

All research is limited. You cannot possibly poll every Muslim in the United States, just like you can't poll every voter prior to an election. However, the greater and varied demographics of the population polled, the greater the accuracy of the estimates. That's just basic statistics. The Pew Research group is one such organization known for its accurate polling.

In a recent Pew Research poll, it was found that Muslims "mostly say that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam are rarely or never justified, including 92% in Indonesia and 91% in Iraq." But in the United States, a 2011 survey found that only "86% of Muslims say that such tactics are rarely or never justified."

That means there is 14% of American Muslims who do believe that terrorist tactics against the United States is justified. With around 1.8 million Muslim adults, that translates into 18,000 people across our nation who are sympathetic to the use of tactics used by organizations like ISIS and al Qaeda.

That is a big freaking number, folks!

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