A Muslim woman arrives for afternoon prayers at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, MI.On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Gallup has released a major new study on attitudes of the Muslim community in the United States, as well as views of Muslims among other religious groups.
The report, which is based primarily on polling conducted in 2010, covers politics, social identity and religious engagement. And some of the results radically undermine popular stereotypes of Muslims Americans. They, for example, are the religious group that is most likely to reject attacks on civilians by individuals (like terrorists) or the military.
Muslim Americans are also more likely than any other religious group to report discrimination in the last 12 months.
For context and analysis of the report (.pdf), I spoke with Mohamed Younis, a Washington-based senior analyst at the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center.
What was the single most surprising result in this poll to you?
It would definitely be the fact that Jewish Americans are more likely than Muslim Americans to say that Muslims face prejudice in the United States. Sixty-six percent of Jewish Americans agree that most Americans are prejudiced toward Muslims in the United States; 60 percent of Muslim Americans agree with that statement. That was something I don’t think a lot of people expected.
Do you have any theories as to why that is?
At the study’s launch event, Rabbi David Saperstein argued this may be because the Jewish community has a large component of people who are socially and politically liberal-minded, and more likely to find that there is prejudice against minorities and want something done about it. Another reason could be that Jews generally are a community that has experienced a lot of distrust, allegations of disloyalty and prejudice — whether it’s in the U.S. or in Europe. In this poll, American Muslim and American Jewish perspectives, even on foreign policy issues like Iraq, are all very similar and closer to each other than to a lot of the other religions.
–Agencies