Quote Originally Posted by marklewis1979 View Post
I am working on a Masters thesis that seeks to analyze the conditions behind provocations to the religion of Islam and the severity of the reaction to them. Both scenarios in which there was an adverse, violent reaction such as those in response to the Danish cartoons or the Qur'an burning by Terry Jones, as well as the complete lack of response such as after France banned Islamic face veils will be considered.
If this is a thesis it would help a lot to know what discipline you are focusing on. The question you are really asking depends a lot on whether you are primarily looking from a sociological, political, historical and so on perspective .

Furthermore, I would identify my assumptions and levels of analysis. Do you believe that all people are the same, and some just happen to be Muslim and others not [an assumption] and you are trying to figure out when communities do this [a level of analysis], or are you trying to discover whether there is something about Muslims that makes them riot more [different assumptions and levels of analysis]. If you don't do that then you will just go around in circles, as people debate what it is that you are actually talking about. Furthermore, you will have an almost endless reading list of various explanations from the influnces of media, to government manipulation of religion and so forth.