via western resistance oct 2007
This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.
Are Attitudes To Islam Hardening?
A poll was published on Tuesday this week, compiled by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. This poll had sampled the opinions of 3,002 American adults, and found that 43% of respondents had a favorable view of Muslims, a drop of 5% from a similar poll from March 2004. In the recent poll, 35% had a negative view of Muslims, while in 2004 that figure had been 32%.
Amongst religious groups, 51% of white mainstream Protestants and 48% of white Catholics had favorable views of Muslims, while only 24% of white evangelicals held favorable views. Fortunately for Muslim Americans, the respondents viewed them more favorably (53%) than they did Muslims in general.
The poll also found that 58% of people said they "knew little or nothing about Islam's practices". Additionally, 70% of Americans questioned thought that their religion was "very different" from Islam. In 2005, the figure for people thinking that their faith differed substantially from Islam stood at 59%. Back in 2001, 52% of people thought that Islam was different from their own faith.
In 2001, 31% of people polled felt their religion had "a lot in common" with Islam, dropping to 27% in 2005 and to 19% in 2007.
Politically, the most positive views on Muslims come from people who class themselves as "liberal Democrats", with 66% of these having a favorable impression of Muslims. For "conservative and moderate Democrats", as well as "independents", 48% had positive views of Muslims. Amongst Republicans, there is less favorable opinion. Of those with "moderate and liberal" outlooks 41% had positive views of Muslims, compared to only 26% of "conservative Republicans".
People who knew a Muslim personally tend to have a more favorable view of Muslims in general. 56% of those who knew Muslims had a positive view, compared to 36% of people with no Muslim associates.
The Pew poll, which was conducted between August 1 and August 18, shows that there appears to be a trend which views Muslims and Islam less favorably than three years ago. Other polls from Europe similarly indicate that attitudes towards Islam seem to be hardening, rather than softening ...
