Editorials & Other Articles

Purveyor

(29,876 posts) Fri Dec 11, 2015, 06:31 PM Dec 2015

Americans' Dim Views Of Islam Have Gotten A Little Worse

While overall opinions haven't changed much, the intensity of anti-Muslim sentiment has risen.

Ariel Edwards-Levy
Staff Reporter and Polling Director, The Huffington Post

Anti-Islamic sentiments are widespread in the U.S., and have intensified slightly this year, a new HuffPost/YouGov survey shows.

Since the Paris terror attacks in November, at least 52 anti-Islamic incidents have been recorded in Canada and the U.S. -- including a severed pig's being head thrown outside a Philadelphia mosque, a brutal attack against a Muslim store owner in New York and passengers of "Middle Eastern descent" being removed from more than one flight after fellow travelers claimed they looked suspicious.
--CLIP

Just 17 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of Islam, according to the poll, which was also conducted after the San Bernardino shooting but prior to Trump's comments. Fifty-eight percent have an unfavorable view of the religion, while 25 percent are unsure.

The results are similar to those of a March HuffPost/YouGov poll, in which 21 percent viewed Islam favorably, 55 percent viewed it unfavorably and one-quarter weren't sure.

Underlying the apparent lack of change, however, is an uptick in the number of people who now consider themselves strongly anti-Islamic. Thirty-five percent of Americans now say they hold a very unfavorable view of the religion, up 8 points since March.

The shift is especially pronounced among Republicans and political independents. Fifty-three percent of the GOP and 36 percent of independents now say they view Islam very unfavorably, a 9-point rise among both groups since March.