Survey Says: 1 in 4 Americans are Anti-Muslim

[simmal tree]

Poll: 1 in 4 Hold Anti-Muslim Views

WASHINGTON (AP) - About one in four Americans holds anti-Muslim views, such as a belief that the religion teaches violence and hatred, according to a survey an Islamic advocacy group released Monday.

The survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations found a majority of Americans hold positive views of Muslims, while a substantial number have no opinion at all.

Anti-Islamic sentiment surged in this country after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by terrorists who claimed to be acting in the name of the faith. Since then, anti-Muslim views have been encouraged by a continuing string of terror attacks, including decapitations, in Iraq, as well as a violent attack on school children in Russia, said Omar Ahmad, chairman of the council's board.

``They have nothing to do with Islam. People claim they are doing it for Islam, but it's really in spite of Islam,'' Ahmad said.

The telephone survey of a random sample of 1,000 American adults found that just over one in four people somewhat or strongly agreed with a series of anti-Muslim sentiments including: the Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred (26 percent agreed); Muslims value life less than other people (27 percent agreed); and Muslims want to change the American way of life (29 percent agreed).

More than four in 10 people disagreed with the statements. In each case, nearly 30 percent said they had no opinion.

Large numbers of Americans also hold a variety of favorable views. More than six in 10, for instance, say Muslims have ``family-oriented values,'' and more than half disagreed with the statement, ``Muslims are dishonest.

9;'

About two in three said they agreed that ``the people who use Islam to justify violence are misinterpreting its teachings.''

The poll found that people most likely to have negative attitudes were male, white, less educated, politically conservative and living in the South.

Hoping to combat these attitudes, the council plans a ``Share Ramadan'' project, where it will encourage Muslims to invite others to share an evening meal during the monthlong event. Ramadan begins Oct. 15 or Oct. 16 with the sighting of the first new moon in the next lunar year.

The survey by Genesis Research Associates was conducted June 23 to July 2 and had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points

On the Net:

Council on American-Islamic Relations: http://cair-net.org

[Mehtab Singh]

Dum a$$ racist rednecks vs fanatic headed inhuman beasts

[ms514]

Sat Sri Akal:

Well DUH!!!

Yeah, this country has some problems... :lol:

May the Almighty bless the world...

[joga singh]

Poll: 1 in 4 Hold Anti-Muslim Views

because bal 3 are muslims.

hahahahaha

[Mehtab Singh]

Poll: 1 in 4 Hold Anti-Muslim Views

because bal 3 are muslims.

hahahahaha

good one

[Japnaam Singh]

So 75% of them don't hold "anti-Muslim" views?

I actually find that pretty impressive.

About one in four Americans holds anti-Muslim views, such as a belief that the religion teaches violence and hatred.

How is that so shocking? I'd expect the majority of Americans to hold those views, I'm really surprised by these results, considering the kind of bombings and suicide attacks that they see on TV every single day.

Moving on, I remember seeing a poll in Maclean's Magazine (most widely distributed Canadian magazine) about 2 or 3 years ago, shortly after the 9/11 attacks showing how the MAJORITY of Canadians (by a slim margin) favoured "restricting" immigration from the middle-east.

America, relative to other countries is not particularly racist. Most continental European countries have white-supremacist movements and the rest of the world has yet to deal with a large degree of racial/ethnic plularism.

In my experiences, there's only a couple of other countries that can possibly be said to be more "tolerant" and "less racist" than the USA. Canada of course, and then probably the UK and maybe Australia.

[nirgun]

I wonder if those results are truly representative of the real population :T:

[simmal tree]

don't kid yourself Japnaam Singh

Just because USA is more democratic than India doesn't mean USA is a democratic and fair and non-racist country

You can't compare somebody to Hitler and call the other person good because he's not as bad as Hitler

On the evil scale, USA is still pretty high up there.

Remember USA Patriot Act?

Maher Arar?

Cat Stevens?

Kuldip Singh Chaggar?

James Ujaamaa?

half of Iraq?

Vietnam?

Two nuclear bombings?

Exploitation of Mexicans?

American-funded Taliban?

American-funded Suharto government?

are they really isolated incidents?

the list goes on...

[Yasmin]

These findings scare and worry me

[Mehtab Singh]

Don't get scared or worried.

Don't be a football of other people's opinions because opinions always change (as said by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar...Art of Living)