Humanities Methods

In thinking about verifiable and nonverifiable stories, I came up with questions regarding crimes affecting the Muslim community within Amsterdam (perhaps it was Professor Reddy's example of U.S. asylum seekers that prompted this train of thought). The murder of Theo Van Gogh is a well known/well publicized crime related to the tension between the non-Muslim and the Muslim community in Amsterdam. I began wondering how to combine the issue of crime and media with a population whom I haven't read much about with regard to hate crimes- Muslim women. It seems most of the literature I've found so far regarding Muslim women focuses on 1) their relationship to Muslim men or 2) the wearing of the headscarf. I'm wondering about hate crimes against Muslims and Muslim womens' perceptions of personal safety here:


Verifiable: How often has the Dutch media in Amsterdam reported on hate crimes against Muslim women in the past ten years? This question can be answered if one were to research it and count the number of reports in the past ten years; it is quantifiable.

Nonverifiable: Do Muslim women believe they are more, or less safe in Amsterdam today? Do they feel the media plays a role in this belief? This question is subjective, based on individual or group beliefs and opinions.

I liked Professor Reddy's explaination of Humanist versus Social Scientist- if I understand it correctly, Humanists ask question after question, while Social Scientists ask a question, then try to answer it/solve it. It seems that Humanists can then focus their energy on generating questions for the Social Scientist to solve? Or perhaps these questions just generate more questions, which aren't really meant to be solved.