the probability of a Muslim engineer becoming a violent Islamist is minuscule, it is still be between three and four times that for other graduates.(usual disclaimers about reading the whole thing in context). I thought 'figures' as I was reading this because it was chiming with an informal observation I've heard made several times in Anglican clergy circles that the most rigid in their spiritual views tend to be those with hard science and engineering backgrounds (but not always, there are some significant exceptions too). So reading on it is intriguing to see this:
"According to polling data, engineering professors in the US are seven times as likely to be right-wing and religious as other academics, and similar biases apply to students. In 16 other countries we investigated, engineers seem to be no more right-wing or religious than the rest of the population, but the number of engineers combining both traits is unusually high. A lot of piecemeal evidence suggests that characteristics such as greater intolerance of ambiguity, a belief that society can be made to work like clockwork, and dislike of democratic politics which involves compromise, are more common among engineers."
Whorle article here: Can university subjects reveal terrorists in the making? - opinion - 15 June 2009 - New Scientist:
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I once looked through a list of Anglican bishops, and a surprisingly high proportion of them seemed to have degrees in engineering and related subjects.
I was also once responsible for training self-supporting clergy from various occupations, and the engineers found it must difficult to switch to theology, because they found it difficult to cope with an inexact science.
Though not germane to this discussion, the students with the worst reading skills were teachers.
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