Studies about the relationship between Americans and Muslims

This document lists a series of studies about the relationship between Americans and Muslims. I have included a snippet about each article and have attempted to be unbiased, but I urge you to look at the data.

Polls of Americans

USA's Muslims under a cloud

August 10, 2006

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-09-muslim-american-cover_x.htm

"Thirty-nine percent of respondents to the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll said they felt at least some prejudice against Muslims. The same percentage favored requiring Muslims, including U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID "as a means of preventing terrorist attacks in the United States." About one-third said U.S. Muslims were sympathetic to al-Qaeda, and 22% said they wouldn't want Muslims as neighbors."

Poll: Sinking Perceptions Of Islam

April 12, 2006

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/12/national/main1494697.shtml

"Forty-five percent of respondents queried April 6 - 9 said they have an unfavorable view of Islam, a rise from 36 percent in February."

Negative Perception Of Islam Increasing

March 8, 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030802221_pf.html

 "The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence... the proportion of Americans who believe that Islam helps to stoke violence against non-Muslims has more than doubled since the attacks, from 14 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent today."

Fear factor: 44 percent of Americans queried in Cornell national poll favor curtailing some liberties for Muslim Americans

December 17, 2004

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Dec04/Muslim.Poll.bpf.html

"In a study to determine how much the public fears terrorism, almost half of respondents polled nationally said they believe the U.S. government should -- in some way -- curtail civil liberties for Muslim Americans, according to a new survey released today (Dec. 17) by Cornell University."

Views of Islam Remain Sharply Divided: Plurality Sees Islam as More Likely to Encourage Violence

September 9, 2004

http://people-press.org/commentary/display.php3?AnalysisID=96

"Despite the U.S. war in Iraq and the continuing threat of terrorism at home, public attitudes toward Islam have remained stable over the past year. Roughly four-in-ten Americans (39%) say they have a favorable impression of Islam, while about as many (37%) say they have an unfavorable view. The balance of opinion has not changed substantially in the past year (40% favorable in July 2003)."

Polls of Muslim Americans

Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream

May 22, 2007

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=329

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/22/america/muslims.php

"Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world."

Accounts of Anti-Muslim Discrimination not Exaggerated

May 30, 2002

http://www.hamilton.edu/news/more_news/display.cfm?ID=4607

"The Hamilton Muslim America Poll examines Muslim attitudes toward the U.S. war on terrorism and related international issues. It also documents anti-Muslim discrimination and harassment in the United States since September 11 and the support that U.S. Muslims have received from other Americans. The survey of over 500 Muslims, most of them U.S. citizens, was designed and analyzed by Hamilton Sociology Professor Dennis Gilbert and his students. The Muslim America Poll was funded by Hamilton's Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center and administered by the polling firm Zogby International."

Other

America's Image in the World: Findings from the Pew Global Attitudes Project

March 14, 2007

http://pewglobal.org/commentary/display.php?AnalysisID=1019

Iranians Overwhelmingly Reject Bin Laden: Both Iranians and Americans; See Terrorism as a Threat to Their Countries

January 30, 2007

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/313.php?nid=&id=&pnt=313&lb=hmpg1

 "Both Iranians and Americans were asked a series of questions about attacks on civilians. Taking these questions together, it appears that Iranians reject attacks on civilians more overwhelmingly than do Americans... very large majority of Iranians (80%) take the strongest position that such attacks "are never justified," and another 5 percent say they are rarely justified... Americans largely concur but at lower levels of intensity. Forty-six percent say that such attacks are never justified, while 27 percent say they are rarely justified."

Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics

July 14, 2005

http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=248

"Concerns over Islamic extremism, extensive in the West even before this month's terrorist attacks in London, are shared to a considerable degree by the publics in several predominantly Muslim nations surveyed. Nearly three-quarters of Moroccans and roughly half of those in Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia see Islamic extremism as a threat to their countries. At the same time, most Muslim publics are expressing less support for terrorism than in the past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defense of Islam."

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Updated September 2007