DURHAM, NC - Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's attempts to invoke fear by alleging that Barack Obama has ties to radical extremists may actually backfire against the Republican ticket, says a Duke University sociologist.

"Sarah Palin's recent claims that Barack Obama is ‘palling around with terrorists' aim to paint him as un-American, to not-so-subtly invoke his supposed affiliation with Muslims, and to ultimately scare potential Obama supporters into voting for John McCain," said Jen'nan Read, an associate professor of sociology and global health at Duke.

"This tactic may very well backfire. Key swing states like Virginia, Florida and Ohio are also home to concentrated numbers of Muslim American voters, many of whom have recently sprung into action to challenge campaign strategies that link moderate, everyday Muslims with extremists and terrorists."

Read is a Carnegie scholar who is currently studying the political integration and activity of U.S. Muslims. She is the author of "Culture, Class and Work Among Arab-American Women" (LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2004).

"Ironically, Muslim Americans traditionally tend to be right-leaning due to their relatively affluent social status and conservative views on social policies like abortion and gay marriage. In the past, this has translated to support for the Republican Party," Read said.

"However the type of political language being used now by Sarah Palin during a presidential campaign in which John McCain has conflated the terms ‘Islamic' with ‘terrorism' and ‘racial extremism' is a scare tactic.

"National Muslim organizations are educating voters on how to put a stop to this type of rhetoric and Muslim Americans are mobilizing in record numbers this election cycle, which may translate into votes for Obama as a rejection of Palin's comments."