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Two new polls show negative image of Islam in America
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Two polls released on March 9, 2006 indicate that almost half of Americans have a negative perception of Islam and that one in four of those surveyed have "extreme" anti-Muslim views.
A growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. 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, the poll indicated.
Meanwhile, an independent survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading American Muslim civil rights group, showed that some one-fourth (23 to 27 percent) of Americans consistently believe stereotypes such as: "Muslims value life less than other people," and "The Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred."
The results released today confirm those of a similar CAIR poll taken in 2004.
CAIR's survey also showed that only six percent of Americans have a positive first impression of Islam and Muslims.
A majority of the respondents in CAIR's survey said they would change their views about Islam and Muslims if they perceived that: 1) Muslims condemn terrorism more strongly; 2) Muslims show more concern for issues important to ordinary Americans; 3) Muslims worked to improve the status of women, and 4) Muslims work to improve the image of America in the Muslim world.
A similar poll released today by the Washington Post and ABC News also found that one in four Americans "admitted to harboring prejudice toward Muslims."
That survey indicated that 46 percent of Americans have a negative view of Islam, a seven percent jump since the months following the 9/11 terror attacks.
The Washington Post-ABC poll also showed that the number of Americans who believe that Islam promotes violence has more than doubled since 2002.
Analysts blame the surge on a confluence of factors: the proposed takeover of US ports operations by a Dubai firm (now abandoned); the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories; and, above all, the riotous protests across the Muslim world against Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
"The coverage of the controversy over the cartoons showed that sort of violent extremist in a way that a lot of Americans found troubling," said Carroll Dougherty of the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.
James J. Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said he is not surprised by the poll's results. Politicians, authors and media commentators have demonized the Arab world since 2001, he said.
"The intensity has not abated and remains a vein that's very near the surface, ready to be tapped at any moment," Zogby said. "Members of Congress have been exploiting this over the ports issue. Radio commentators have been talking about it nonstop."
Juan Cole, a professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan, agreed, saying Americans "have been given the message to respond this way by the American political elite, mass media and by select special interests."
Cole said he was shocked when a radio talk show host asked him if Islamic extremists would set off a nuclear bomb in the United States in the next six months. "It was ridiculous. I think anti-Arab racism and profiling has become respectable," he said.
Ronald Stockton, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, said an exceptionally high percentage of non-Muslims feels the media depicts Arabs unfairly, yet still holds negative opinions. "You're getting a constant drumbeat of negative information about Islam," he said.
Michael Franc, vice president of government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that the survey responses "seems to me to be a real backlash against Islam" and that congressional leaders do not help the problem by sometimes using language that links all Muslims with extremists.
"The results of these polls indicate that there is a tremendous need for public education about Islam and the Muslim community's stance on a number of issues," said CAIR Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed. "While there seems to be a sizable minority of Americans who harbor extreme Islamophobic views, the majority has little knowledge of Islam and tends to base their perceptions on international events that do not reflect the daily reality experienced by the world's 1.3 billion Muslims."
He noted that the poll results show that Muslims must do a better job of letting fellow Americans know what they are already doing to address public concerns.
Ahmed cited the many statements by CAIR and other American Muslim groups condemning terrorism of any kind, CAIR's "Not in the Name of Islam" public service announcement campaign, efforts to increase the participation of Muslim women in American mosques, and repeated offers to help build bridges of understanding between the United States and the Islamic world.
He said CAIR has also launched a number of initiatives to educate ordinary Americans about Islam and Muslims, such as its "Explore the Life of Muhammad" campaign offering free DVDs or books about Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the "Explore the Quran" campaign in which Americans of all faiths may order a free copy of Islam's revealed text and the recently concluded "Explore Islamic Civilization and Culture" campaign that distributed materials about Islam to more than 8,000 public libraries nationwide.
The CAIR survey results were based on 1001 telephone interviews conducted by California-based Genesis Research Associates in November 2005. A total of 1,000 randomly selected Americans were interviewed March 2-5 for this Post-ABC News poll.
Washington Post - March 9, 2006
Negative perception of Islam increasing
Poll numbers in U.S. higher than in 2001
By Claudia Deane and Darryl Fears
As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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 survey comes at a time of increasing tension; the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq show little sign of ending, and members of Congress are seeking to block the Bush administration's attempt to hire an Arab company to manage operations at six of the nation's ports. Also, Americans are reading news of deadly protests by Muslims over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
Conservative and liberal experts said Americans' attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists.
According to the poll, 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.
The survey also found that one in three Americans have heard prejudiced comments about Muslims lately. In a separate question, slightly more (43 percent) reported having heard negative remarks about Arabs. One in four Americans admitted to harboring prejudice toward Muslims, the same proportion that expressed some personal bias against Arabs.
Though the two groups are often linked in popular discourse, most of the world's Muslims are not of Arab descent. For example, the country with the largest Muslim population is Indonesia.
As a school bus driver in Chicago, Gary McCord, 65, dealt with many children of Arab descent. "Some of the best families I've ever had were some of my Muslim families," he said in a follow-up interview. "They were so nice to me." He now works for a Palestinian Christian family, whose members he says are "really marvelous."
But his good feelings do not extend to Islam. "I don't mean to sound harsh or anything, but I don't like what the Muslim people believe in, according to the Koran. Because I think they preach hate," he said.
As for the controversial cartoons of Muhammad, he said Arabs seem hypersensitive about religion. "I think it's been blown out of proportion," he said.
A total of 1,000 randomly selected Americans were interviewed March 2-5 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
Americans who said they understood Islam were more likely to see the religion overall as peaceful and respectful. But they were no less likely to say it harbors harmful extremists, and they were also no less likely to have prejudiced feelings against Muslims.
In Gadsden, Ala., Ron Hardy, an auto parts supplier, said Arabs own a lot of stores in his area and "they're okay." But, Hardy, 41, said "I do think" Islam has been "hijacked by some militant-like guys."
Edward Rios, 31, an engineer in McHenry, Ill., said he feels that Islam "is as good a religion as any other" yet vengeance seems to be "built into their own set of beliefs: If someone attacks our people, it is your duty to defend them. . . . I don't think Christianity has anything like that."…
Michael Franc, vice president of government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that the survey responses "seems to me to be a real backlash against Islam" and that congressional leaders do not help the problem by sometimes using language that links all Muslims with extremists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030802221_pf.html
The Guardian - March 10, 2006
Islamophobia worse in America now
than after 9/11, survey finds
· Majority says Islam has most violent followers
· Analysts blame politicians and media coverage
By Suzanne Goldenberg
More than half of Americans believe there are more violent extremists within Islam than in any other religion and that the faith encourages violence against non-Muslims, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll yesterday.
Negative feelings towards Islam are much more pronounced now than in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 2001 terror attacks, the survey found.
A majority, 58%, of those interviewed now believe that Islam has more violent followers than any other religion. The poll of 1,000 was conducted by phone last week and has a three-point error margin. Since January 2002 the proportion of those who believe mainstream Islam promotes violence against non-believers has risen from 14% to 32%.
Analysts blame the surge on a confluence of factors: the proposed takeover of US ports operations by a Dubai firm (now abandoned); the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories; and, above all, the riotous protests across the Muslim world against Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. "The coverage of the controversy over the cartoons showed that sort of violent extremist in a way that a lot of Americans found troubling," said Carroll Dougherty of the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.
American attitudes towards Islam were not out of step with Europe, Mr Dougherty said, adding that there was more tolerance in the US towards the use of headscarves than in countries such as Germany or France, where there is strong support for a ban.
But nearly half of Americans, 46%, said they held unfavourable attitudes towards Islam - compared with 24% in January 2002. The Post quoted analysts as saying that the demonisation of Islam by politicians and the media during the past four years had led to an erosion of tolerance.
In the immediate aftermath of September 11 2001, George Bush made a number of statements disassociating Islam and the general Arab and Muslim population in America from al-Qaida. He also visited a mosque, a symbolic gesture that helped build a more positive image of Islam.
"It seems counter-intuitive, but from the president on down there was a very strong message from Washington that this was not representative of Islam," Mr Dougherty said. "In the intervening years there has been an absence of this sort of positive message."
James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, told the Post he was not surprised by the poll's results. Politicians, authors and media commentators have demonised the Arab world since 2001, he said.
"The intensity has not abated and remains a vein that's very near the surface, ready to be tapped at any moment," Mr Zogby said. "Members of Congress have been exploiting this over the ports issue. Radio commentators have been talking about it non-stop."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1727812,00.html
CAIR Bulletin – March 10, 2006
Fighting Islamophobia should be a top priority
By Dr. Parvez Ahmed
The recent hysteria surrounding the approval of a Dubai firm to manage parts of several American ports demonstrates how fear of Islam, or "Islamophobia," can overpower rational discourse and harm our nation's true interests.
What would normally have been a routine business deal with a stable ally turned into a political fiasco that sent a "no Arabs or Muslims need apply" message to our partners in the Middle East and beyond.
Indications of how politicians were able to exploit the Dubai ports deal appear in two new polls on attitudes toward Islam. These troubling poll results should serve as a wake-up call for all Americans who value our nation's traditions of religious tolerance and who seek to improve our sagging image in the Muslim world.
The polls, one by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the other by the Washington Post and ABC News, indicate that almost half of Americans have a negative perception of Islam and that one in four of those surveyed consistently believe stereotypes such as: "Muslims value life less than other people," and "The Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred." (See: www.cair.com)
The Post-ABC poll found that one-fourth of Americans "admitted to harboring prejudice toward Muslims," which experts said is "fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists."
CAIR's survey also showed that the majority of Americans have little or no knowledge about Islam.
A majority of the respondents in CAIR's survey said they would change their views about Islam and Muslims if they perceived that Muslims condemned terrorism more strongly, showed more concern for issues important to ordinary Americans, worked to improve the status of women, and worked to improve the image of America in the Muslim world.
The results of both polls suggest that education is the key to decreasing anti-Muslim prejudice and that Muslims must do a better job of letting fellow Americans know what is being done to address their concerns.
CAIR and other American Muslim groups have repeatedly condemned terrorism of any kind. The "Not in the Name of Islam" public service announcement campaign, a fatwa against terrorism, and an online petition drive rejecting violence in the name of Islam are but a few examples.
Efforts are underway to increase the participation of Muslim women in American mosques. CAIR helped distribute a brochure, called "Women Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Working Together to Reclaim Our Heritage," to mosques throughout the United States.
American Muslims have also worked to help build bridges of understanding between the United States and the Islamic world. American Muslim leaders recently took part in diplomatic initiatives during recent controversies such as the rioting in suburbs of Paris and the worldwide reaction to publications of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. A CAIR initiative, called "Explore the Life of Muhammad," offers free DVDs or books about Islam's prophet to Americans of all faiths.
In the past, educational and cultural exchanges were viewed as a kind of frill, a nice undertaking if the resources were available. Today, such efforts ought to be viewed as a long term investments vital to the national security interests of the United States.
Islamophobia, like anti-Semitism or other forms of bigotry, should be of concern to all Americans. It was Islamophobia that prompted 44 percent of Americans surveyed in a 2004 Cornell University study to believe that some curtailment of American Muslim civil liberties may be necessary.
There is a sliver lining to all this bad news. Those Americans who had a chance to meet with or interact with Muslims often tend to have more enlightened attitudes. Surveys repeatedly show that people who feel they do understand Islam are much more likely to view it positively.
Our nation's experiences since the 9/11 terror attacks, coupled with recent research, should spur American religious and political leaders to make fighting Islamophobia a top priority.
(Parvez Ahmed, Ph.D., is board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. He may be contacted at: pahmed@cair-net.org)
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