What are Muslim-Americans saying on Twitter?

Are we united on Twitter? Or do we let social media get between us? What type of language do we use? How opinionated are we? Do we reflect the same trends seen in other communities?

In my undergraduate thesis research for DePaul University, I hope to take a look at Twitter data to see how divided Muslims really are.

But historical Twitter data is not freely available to the public and must be purchased. Thus, 100% of the money I raise here will go to purchasing the twitter data, and I will stop collecting money once I reach my goal.

 **All donors (except those who wish to stay anonymous) will be listed in the research acknowledgements.**

#TwitterFight : What Tweets am I looking for exactly?

I am centering my research around 4 events:

• July 2014 White House Iftar
• August 2014 Tariq Ramadan Boycott
• January 2015 Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI) trip
• February 2015 Chapel Hill Shooting

I will collect tweets related to all the above using relevant hashtags.

#DoYourResearch : The Big Picture

But I won't stop there. After collecting and analyzing tweets, I will also analyze data from an online survey I created (which you can take here). Lastly, I will conduct in-depth interviews with leaders and organizers in the Muslim-American community to better understand the thought process behind the beliefs. 

#MuslimUnity : Why should Muslim-Americans care about this?

The results of this research could mean a lot for Muslim-Americans. It can identify where we may be united or divided, and why that is, so that we can better unite as a major political force. It might also have some social consequences, like better understanding where there are divisions in our community and becoming more inclusive as a result. 

The media gives an image of a "radical" Muslim as a crazy and violent person. However, being radical simply means departing from and challenging the status quo.

It's all in the details

Below is a more detailed breakdown of my expenses and timeline:

EXPENSES:

I will purchase twitter data from Sifter, at a rate of $20/day and $30/100,000 tweets. For each event, I am looking at two weeks of data, so:

14*4=56

56*$20=$1120

+4*$30=$1240

However, as a student and as a Twitter use, I get a small discount, so my final total comes out to $1,160.00.

TIMELINE:

Now- End of Ramadan (July 17th) : Raise funds for Twitter data collection and continue distributing survey and interviewing individuals.

July 17th - August 15th : Analyze Twitter and survey data and complete final research essay, graphs, and infographics.

This sounds awesome. How else can I help?

• Take the online survey for my research here.
• Have your organization or mosque partner with me, so I can spread my survey to more people, as well as quickly pass on the results. To do this, email me at shazaloutfi93@gmail.com with "Research Partner," in the subject line. Note: I can provide paper surveys if needed as well.
• Follow my blog here to see the results when they're published in August, if you didn't donate enough to get an automatic update when results are published.