The Washington Post reports on a recent poll it conducted with the ABC TV network on American attitudes toward Muslims. It’s not awful, but as they say, it needs improvement. A lot of improvement. Most Americans acknowledge that they don’t know much about Islam. But that does stop nearly half of them from not liking what they think they know. The aphorism about Nature abhorring a vacuum is, sadly, true. Without factual information, audiences will seize upon any information. Right now, Islamophobes hold the high ground and are winning the argument, usually by taking particular examples and extrapolating to the whole of Islam. Sometimes this is a matter of ignorance. Too often, it’s the result of malice.
It seems to me that both Muslims and non-Muslims are largely talking past each other, still. Unfortunately, Arab governments (and most Americans do consider Arabs as ‘the’ typical Muslim) don’t do very good work in public diplomacy. When they do engage, it’s often heavy handed and consequently counter-productive.
The poll does show that the American Muslim community has its work cut out for itself if it intends to decrease tensions with their American compatriots.
Most in Poll Back Outreach to Muslims
Jon Cohen and Jennifer AgiestaMost Americans think President Obama’s pledge to “seek a new way forward” with the Muslim world is an important goal, even as nearly half hold negative views about Islam and a sizable number say that even mainstream adherents to the religion encourage violence against non-Muslims, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
There is still a broad lack of familiarity with the world’s second-largest religion — 55 percent of those polled said they are without a basic understanding of the teachings and beliefs of Islam, and most said they do not know anyone who is Muslim. While awareness has increased in recent years, underlying views have not improved.
About half, 48 percent, said they have an unfavorable view of Islam, the highest in polls since late 2001. Nearly three in 10, or 29 percent, said they see mainstream Islam as advocating violence against non-Muslims; although more, 58 percent, said it is a peaceful religion.
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April:06:2009 - 09:16
Reminds me of that New York Times editorial a while back by some “expert” (I forget who) saying that Obama would face greater risk of traveling to Muslim countries because he’s an apostate. I was bowled over that the NYT would run an editorial like that. I wrote a letter pointing out that one is an apostate if s/he rejects Islam AFTER embracing it. This “expert” didn’t even seem to realize that just because Obama was born to a father who was “Muslim” (apparently he was a non-practicing Muslim) for Obama to be an apostate he would have had to embrace Islam as an adult (post puberty) and then later reject it. That’s very clearly defined in the religion. Sometimes I wonder how Middle East experts become “experts” enough to write deceptive 900-word editorials in the world’s most widely read newspaper!
April:06:2009 - 14:10
Anoymous: I agree with you a 100% about deceptive information written in the most widely and I say more liberal papers.
For the most part, there is a lot of misinformation circulating the media and the internet, most notable of all, MEMRI ( The seem to collect every negative aspect of teh ME and Islam–I really do not care for them)
April:06:2009 - 18:29
While MEMRI is not my favorite news source and it certainly does pick a lot of stupidities in the Arab media, those stupidities are actually there. And, to got a bit further, MEMRI has started paying attention to Arabs who are pushing for more tolerance and liberal government. They’ve been doing that for the past five years or so and I have to applaud them for it. They have an agenda that they meet very well. But I do have to give them respect.
April:07:2009 - 08:03
I must agree with Mr. Burgess on MEMRI. Yes it clearly has an agenda to show the stupidities that are out there. I think embarrassment is a good tactic to employ and nothing is more entertaining than watching YouTube clips of self-proclaimed teevee prophets talking about how Neil Armstrong is secretly a Muslim because in space he saw that the Kaaba is indeed the center of the universe. Swedish also has a point that people should look at some of these “stupidities” as anomalies and not the status quo. That said, some of these things are not just banal oddities of Saudi culture; they represent hate speech and human rights violations. When you have “judges” saying women who are raped should also be punished with lashes and jail time for getting themselves into that situation (committing khulwa) in the first place. . . well that’s more than just a “stupidity” or an “exaggerated anomaly” — it’s dangerous ideology.
April:07:2009 - 08:43
I discussed the issue the other day with my son; he confirmed he (as a French student) had been taught basic information about the main religions (including Islam and Christianity of course); quite rightly he wondered whether that is the case in other Western countries or in Muslim countries;
now that may be a recent change in the French syllabus; when I was a boy that was not covered by our teachers.