In its most recent analysis, the Gallup polling company reports that American prejudice against Muslims has grown. The poll was taken after the Ft. Hood shootings, but before the Christmastime attempt to bomb an American airliner. You can download the entire report (36-page PDF document) from this link.
In U.S., Religious Prejudice Stronger Against Muslims
43% of Americans admit to feeling some prejudice toward followers of Islam
Analysis by the Gallup Center for Muslim StudiesWASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 4 in 10 Americans (43%) admit to feeling at least “a little” prejudice toward Muslims — more than twice the number who say the same about Christians (18%), Jews (15%) and Buddhists (14%). The findings are based on a new Gallup Center for Muslim Studies report, “Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam,” released Thursday.
Interestingly, the strongest indicator of prejudice against Muslims is prejudice against Jews, the report says. It also notes that most Americans admit that they don’t know very much about Islam. In fact, they have little knowledge of religions other than Christianity, a not-unreasonable situation given the Christian background of most Americans. The study supports the conclusion that American attitudes are framed by media coverage and Muslims are the most frequently cited religious group, usually in a negative context. This context is not editorial, but due to coverage of bad events that involve Muslims.
Muslim attitudes toward women also plays a role in casting Muslims in general into a bad light in the US. That survey in Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan say that equal rights for women is important, that is not the message that’s getting through.
On a more encouraging note, 70% of respondents say that Muslims do want peace.
I do suggest you read the entire report. It’s not terribly long, but it is rather important.
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January:22:2010 - 09:59
This report only covers one time frame. Unless I missed something, it doesn’t report that attitudes towards Muslims are dropping, only that people say that is what is happening; an anecdote, not a statistic.
If they have past data, they could have included it for comparison in those nifty bar graphs. I would have been especially interested to see if people are less reluctant to answer now than they had been two or three years ago.
January:22:2010 - 12:29
Solomon2 is correct the survey doesn’t give a trend but the headline in the article does say ‘stronger’, so a casual reader would assume that there is a trend. Its a simplistic survey and little more. The fancy foundations that are connected to it, don’t make it any more true.
I am also disgusted that the pdf brings up the name Geert Wilders simply to connect him to the idea the those who dislike Islam will dislike Muslims. I have no idea what Wilders thinks of Muslims but connecting his name in this kind of report is the worst kind of libel. They don’t say so directly but they certainly draw the picture for a casual reader. Those who disparage Islam are no more bigots that those who disparage conservative Christianity.
January:22:2010 - 13:21
J.
I think that associating Wilders name to attitudes about Muslims is fair. He voices opinions that represent many of us, to a certain + or – degree.
I agree that most of those who “disparage” Islam are not necessarily bigots, but people concerned about what Islam represents, or in the case of Europe, what it brings to the table.
One thing is certain: Muslims will blame those attitudes upon everybody but themselves and Islam.
K
January:22:2010 - 14:44
This is an important report – it not only shows that the American attitudes towards Muslims are becoming negative, it also sows that this negativity comes from the fact that these people, who show a prejudice don’t have much interaction with Muslims, they don’t have much knowledge about Islam and their ideas are shaped by the negative coverage by the media, amongst other things.
While it is true that knowledge of and interaction with a community and a balanced coverage of that community by the media go a long way in dispelling the prejudices of the people against that community, it is necessary to explore the reasons why so many Americans don’t have interactions with the Muslims, why they don’t know much about any religion other than Christianity and what makes the media portray only Islam and Muslims in a negative light, not any other religion or community.
Without exploring these questions the picture of interactions between and attitudes of Muslims and non-Muslims does not become clear.
January:22:2010 - 15:03
I never knew any Muslims until about 2 years ago when one, oddly enough, contacted me from Syria! What a pair we were with our vast differences “on paper.”
I hope more people here in the US will have the opportunity to meet Muslims. I think this is key to dispelling this fear and suspicion. I understand why people have these perceptions because we often base our views on the media and most everything in the media about Muslims is baaaad. Hopefully more one-on-one friendships will help in the future. That’s my wish and I am proof that it certainly helps a great deal! Maybe more Muslims should be encouraged to reach out instead of sticking to ONLY greeting their Muslim brothers and sisters. I know some might think this mingling with nonMuslims is bad, but that attitude is what keeps us fearful and suspicious.
Thanks for posting this.
January:22:2010 - 20:58
Suzanne….
Maybe Muslims should just try the Golden Rule. That would do it.
And while the media is often biased, you cant blame the media for just reporting what Muslims do in the name of Islam.
K.
January:23:2010 - 00:04
Jay, Many Muslims do try the Golden Rule, but then we are criticized for not being able to control our unstable, vile fringe.
January:23:2010 - 02:50
Treatment of women is definitely a major issue. Most of us don’t buy the religious basis for treating women like second class citizens. Let’s face it, all religions at some point in their recent history have treated women as intrinsically inferior to men and justified it in the name of God. But we got past it and recognized word of God or not, such mistreatment was unacceptable. I personally find it impossible to have any sympathy or respect for an ideology that in the 21st Century justifies unequal treatment of women.
January:23:2010 - 03:53
The “stronger” in the survey title is that the prejudice held by Americans against Muslims is greater than that they hold against the other 3 religions named in the survey, not an evolution over time, though it is easy to misread.
The biggest design flaw is the very low response rate. This is indicative of a self-selection bias in responding that may well have skewed towards those with more negative feelings as those are the ones most likely in any survey to take the time and make the effort to respond. It is cross-sectional in design so the point in time issue is part of the design.
I thought the findings were and interesting starting point anyway. The finding that those who are active in their own faith are less prejudiced is consistent with my experience that people of faith have more in common across faiths that someone who has no faith with someone who does. They share a common sense of belief in a higher power and the core values that religions share. They are more willing to go with the shared and forgive the details unless tney are actively trying to debate points to some purpose, academic, missionary, etc.
The fact that those who know a Muslim are less likely to be extremely prejudiced against but not any more likely to be actively favourable towards Muslims, and the explanation that the diversity among Muslims prevents a greater transfer of positive feelings from one to all is enlightening, and fits with the findings of the Harvard study on the impact of the Hajj on Muslims: being in contact with so many Muslims from so many places increases tolerance toward other Muslims, and understanding of the differences religion vs culture in their own community’s practice in a way that is sustained over years and contributes to the community itself.
The finding that Americans perceive Muslims as anti-women’s rights, and that Muslims surveyed internationally agree 80% with the idea that women should have equal legal rights reflects on what the survey report calls “the perception gap”. This makes sense in light of the other research finding that the media portrayal of Muslim women is 75% of the time in a passive and/or victim role.
Media portrayals do matter, and simply reporting the negative of “what Muslims do” is a skew. Rather like taking an Amnesty International report of the abuses in a country to represent all of what happens there, and as representative of the attitudes of all there. It is an interesting experience to read the report for one’s own country: true, but not the total picture of the country. The same is true of media reporting: negative in the majority (it bleeds it leads) and focused on extremes: women who cut off their husband’s penis; men who kill their pregnant wife; perverts who kidnap, violate and kill children, or keep them locked in as sex slaves–to name a few favourite news themes from the US.
Tonight my nephew and I together read this poster on the Golden Rule in faiths of the world :
http://www.victoriamultifaith.com/images/Golden-Rule.gif
It was on the wall near the chaplaincy service or “Spiritual Service Centre” of a Roman Catholic hospital. Very impressive in my opinion, and one illustration of shared core beliefs across religions, that contribute to understanding.
January:25:2010 - 07:10
The problem with Muslim PR is that the people who keep trying to blow up planes are Muslims. This has a powerful effect on public opinion. If more Christians, Jews, Hindus, animists and infidels were trying to blow up planes then the negative attitudes would be more equally dispersed. What we need is more non-Muslim plane blower-uppers!
January:25:2010 - 07:21
Tough chance Anonymous, trying to build a team of plane-blowing gangsters who’d do it only because they are Christians, Jews, Hindus, animists and infidels!
You need to give them much greater incentive than just that. Building a world-wide “Caliphate” of their religion or fighting the US as the Big Enemy is not on their agenda at the moment.
January:25:2010 - 07:25
What I found puzzling was why the Abrahamic religions are compared in this report with Buddhism.
What’s special about Buddhism? Why single it out of all the other so-called “mythical religions” of the world?
January:25:2010 - 10:14
@ Daisy 12
Good question. I would guess that maybe more Americans are familiar with Buddhism and the pollsters thought it would give a more meaningful statistic.
January:25:2010 - 15:35
I read it three times before realizing that not all statistically significant correlations are being reported: “In the following analysis, we do not examine people who see Muslims positively, but those who claim no negative bias against them.”
In other words, correlated prejudices in FAVOR of Muslims are not included, such as those who feel favorably towards Islam (Q2C d-f, 45%) yet don’t know any Muslims (Q4C c, 47%).
Just as one can’t draw any conclusions about trends “dropping” or “increasing” from a single time frame, one cannot get an accurate picture of American attitudes towards Muslims if one doesn’t examine the favorable prejudice data.
January:25:2010 - 16:16
Regarding using Buddhism as an example–note that the original poll was not comparing attitudes against one religion as compared to another, but rather American attitudes towards each of the religions, including Christianity. Perhaps the pollster’s interest in Buddhism stems from the American interest in China (economic at least) and the Dalai Lama, who has immense coverage when in the US and a lot of favourables. Hindus are most likely off the radar screen of most Americans because of demographics, and the lack of major interest figures (a Dalai Lama counterpart), or concern over the the finer points of current events in India.
Solomon2–excellent point!
January:25:2010 - 17:27
No, one can investigate negative feelings without taking into account the positives. You end up with something other than a +/- result, of course, but that’s what Gallup did. They were interested only in the negative and neutral feelings. Gallup is the ‘grandfather’ of public polling. Their statistical methods are about as good as they ever get, so I don’t think they can be faulted on this count. It does mean that those reading the report (and reporting further on it) do need to read it closely, though. Me included.
Gallup has done earlier polling on attitudes toward Muslims. I the last one I recall was a global one, with the US as only one element. From that, they’d have data that would be useful for comparative reasons.
January:25:2010 - 17:31
Or maybe it was because the only Buddhist most Americans could think of, off the top of their heads, was the news-worthy Tiger Wood?
January:25:2010 - 19:54
Ah yes, tiger tiger burning bright in the night…may his sex addiction rehab work miracles. LOL
January:25:2010 - 20:34
I think there is a lot more interesting in Buddhism in America. Maybe that’s why it was included as one of the choices.
January:25:2010 - 20:36
“interest” not “interesting”
*sigh*
January:25:2010 - 20:36
Tiger Wood may be a good explanation.
Buddhism has been repressed by the Communist Chinese State. Japan is a more plausible explanation.
I wonder if they took into consideration the idea of moderate life that forms one of the basic tenets of Buddhism (called the Middle Path). I wonder if the researchers knew so much about all the religions to be aware that this notion forms one of the tenets of Buddhism.
Susanne,
What’s the reason for the Americans’ interest in Buddhism?
January:25:2010 - 21:30
Tiger Woods’ personal life is no different from that of many celebrities. It has nothing to do with Buddhism.
If the Americans use it to form their attitude towards Buddhism or Buddhists, that’s another kind of ignorance.
January:25:2010 - 21:39
Tiger Wood (or perhaps the Dalai Lama) is the best-known Buddhist to most Americans. That, of course, says nothing about Buddhism, only about the breadth/depth of knowledge about Buddhism is in the US. Proportionately, Buddhism is among the most minor of religions in the US, so the fact that it is relatively unknown isn’t startling.
January:25:2010 - 22:06
John,
Yes, that’s quite logical. But Susane said that Americans have an interest in Buddhism. Again, since it’s a minority religion in the US, it raises questions about why it was chosen in his report. Perhaps because it is a minority religion, so as an indicator of unfamiliarity as a variable for attitude formation?
January:25:2010 - 22:41
The survey seemed designed only to answer the question of the attitudes of Americans toward different religions. No knowledge of the religions named is required on the part of the researchers or the Americans answering.
I would think the Dalai Lama is the best explanation for interest in Buddhism in the US, precisely because China has repressed Tibet, and him. He does draw a lot of attention and support. I doubt Japan figures as much more than the source of consumer goods, at the moment.
I also doubt there is any more real familiarity with Judaism (rather than the Old Testament) or Islam on the part of responders, than with Buddhism. That wasn’t the point of the survey, nor was it to determine bias as a function of ignorance, although some of the discussion of the results alluded to that.
January:25:2010 - 23:09
Bias as a function of ignorance emerges quite well from this report.
January:25:2010 - 23:50
But are we really surprised by that? It’s much easier to have negative feelings toward things about which you’ve only heard negative things! Once anyone starts to learn about something, it becomes far less black-and-white.
January:26:2010 - 04:48
“It’s much easier to have negative feelings toward things about which you’ve only heard negative things!”
No kidding. There are Hindu mutawwas. There are barbaric Hindu acts by extremists. They have honor killing among their crazies, too. The strict Hindu marriage rules and dowry system are worse (IMO) than strict Islamic ones.
But it doesn’t seem like Americans harbor much bigotry against them (except when hate crimes are committed against Sikhs mistaken for Muslims). I think it has everything to do with the fact the Hindu extremism is relegated strictly to India whereas Islamic extremism exists on a much broader field and is directly wholly (but not completely) at the US (and Israel, as it is viewed as a US protectorate). Also: Their terrorism and bigotry is directed squarely against Muslims. Hindu extremism is viewed as an Indian problem, so it isn’t covered as much by the int’l media … except for the occasional “girl burned alive for disobeying father’s marriage wishes” brief in “News of the Weird” — yes, I’m exaggerating a little bit
January:26:2010 - 11:26
John,
No, we are not surprised by that (if you mean my comment # 25). I was just clarifying that the survey may be making a comparison between the attitudes formed towards Islam as a result of unfamiliarity and towards Buddhism as a result of unfamiliarity. hence the choice of Buddhism.