Opinion Editorials, September 2009

Muslim American Reaction to the PEW Report

By Shaik Ubaid

ccun.org, September 14, 2009
 

The following is Dr. Shaik Ubaid, Founding National Coordinator of Coalition Against Genocide's reaction to the new report based on a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (below). He was speaking at a Ramadan iftar (traditional meal to break the day-long fast)
 
"I am not surprised by the trend of increasing acceptance of Muslims in the American society and the gradual fading away of paranoia about Islam in America. The reason for this positive trend is two fold, number one, the American society is an open and welcoming society and number two is that the American Muslims have been involved in a concerted effort to reach out to their fellow citizens with the true teachings of Islam which promotes peace, harmony, individual responsibility, equality and justice.
 
It was natural that after the horrendous terrorist attacks of 9/11 a climate of fear and suspicion against Islam and Muslims spread over America. This climate was intensified and even prolonged by a vocal minority of Islamophobes from diverse backgrounds. Some were religious fanatics  such as the fanatical wing of evangelicals and the Hindutva extremists and others were political extremists such as neocons who saw the growth of Islam in America as a threat to their stranglehold over American foreign policy. Initially this coalition of strange bedfellows seemed to be succeeding but because of the concerted efforts of the American Muslim community and its allies in the inter-faith and human rights groups and the sustained efforts of the American political leaders from the local to the federal levels, the hatemongering was successfully countered.  The election of President Barack Hussein Obama was a clear indication that the fear-mongering had failed to achieve its objective.
 
American children are taught that racism and bigotry are evil and they are taught to introspect and admit to the historic mistakes and failings of the American society. It is therefore easy to counter hatemongering and fear mongering in America. In fact the increase interest in Islam that hatemongering generates always ends up getting more new converts to Islam. This happened in the 1960s and 70s during the civil rights struggle, in the eighties after Iranian revolution and Salman Rushdi controversy and in the 90s after first gulf war and first WTC bombings. Initially there was an increase in the negative perception about Islam but once people took interest and studies Islam the negative perception gradually subsided and a more positive perception emerged."
 
 Dr. Shaik Ubaid is a neurologist in New York. He is originally from India.  He can be reached at 516-567-0783
 

U.S. survey: More know about Islam, fewer think it's violent

Associated Press, September 9, 2009

 KEY DEMOGRAPHICS OF MUSLIM-AMERICANS

Gallup Organization interviews with a random sample of 946 Muslim Americans in 2008 shed light on the demographics of this rarely studied group:

RACE: Muslims are the nation's most racially diverse religious group. At least a third of Muslim-Americans are black mostly converts or children of converts to Islam. "The significant proportion of native-born converts to Islam is a characteristic unique to the United States," Gallup said. More than a quarter call themselves white, while nearly one in five identified as Asian and about as many classified themselves as "other."

RELIGIOSITY: Muslim-Americans are more religious than other Americans, but less likely than those in predominantly Muslim countries to say religion plays an important part in their lives 80% of Muslim-Americans compared to virtually all in Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Morocco, for example.

IDEOLOGY: Muslim-Americans are the U.S. religious group most evenly spread out along the political spectrum 29% liberal, 38% moderate, 25% conservative.

PARTISANSHIP: 49% of Muslim-Americans called themselves Democrats, 8% Republican and 37% independent. Gallup found that among all Americans in 2008 34% identified as Democratic, 26% Republican and 33% independent. But voter registration was relatively low among Muslim-Americans.

OTHER DEMOGRAPHICS: Muslim-Americans skew young, with 36% age 18-29, double the rate for the general population. They're more likely than other Americans to be single. Forty percent have at least a college degree, compared to 29% of Americans overall. Muslims may be slightly more likely than other Americans to report low household income.

Results were subject to sampling error of +/- 4 percentage points for Muslim-Americans, 0.2 points for all Americans

 COMPARE CHANGES IN U.S. RELIGIONS OVER 2 DECADES

The Associated Press

Americans are learning more about Islam, and familiarity with the faith makes people more likely to view Muslims favorably and less likely to believe Islam encourages violence, according to a new study.

The survey by the Pew Research Center also showed that Americans still believe Muslims face far more discrimination than the nation's other religious groups.

The findings can be linked because increased knowledge about Muslims is tied to more sensitivity about bias they face, said Greg Smith, the report's senior researcher.

"To say that Muslims are discriminated against ... it's not the same thing as expressing an unfavorable view of Muslims. In fact it's just the opposite," he said. "People who are most sympathetic to a group are more likely to see that group as being discriminated against."

In the annual survey released Wednesday, 58% of Americans said there was "a lot" of discrimination against Muslims. Jews were seen as the religious group with the next highest level of bias against them, with 35% saying they faced a lot of discrimination.

Homosexuals were the only group seen as facing more discrimination than Muslims, with almost two-thirds of Americans saying homosexuals are discriminated against a lot.

According to the Pew survey, belief among Americans that Islam encourages violence has fluctuated since the Sept. 11 attacks, and was at its lowest level — a quarter of those surveyed — in March after the terror strikes.

By 2007, 45% of Americans believed Islam was more likely than other faiths to encourage violence. This year, that number fell to 38%. The group most likely to say Islam encourages violence this year was conservative Republicans, at 55%. But that dropped 13% from two years ago, making them the group with the biggest change of opinion since 2007.

The survey, conducted by telephone, also indicated that Americans have grown steadily more knowledgeable about Islam: 41% knew that the Muslim name for God is Allah and the Quran is the Islamic sacred text, compared to 33% in March 2002.

The "small and gradual, but noticeable" change has an affect, Smith said. Those most familiar with Islam were least likely to link the religion with violence. Fifty-seven percent of people who knew the names Muslims use to refer to God and their sacred text, and were also acquainted with a Muslim, said Islam did not encourage violence more than other faiths.

The same percentage of that group said their overall opinion of Muslims was favorable and 70% of that group said there's discrimination against Muslims.

Only 21% of those with a low familiarity with Islam had a favorable opinion of Muslims, and less than half of that group saw a lot of discrimination against them.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Pew's findings back up his own group's research. He blamed a "vocal minority" in the U.S. for fanning anti-Muslim bias with increasingly harsh rhetoric since 9/11.

"Unfortunately, people have focused on that tiny, tiny minority of Muslims who have carried out violent acts, and claim to act in the name of Islam," he said. "Ninety-nine point nine, nine percent of all Muslims will live and die without coming near an act of violence."

Seemi Choudry, a 20-year-old Muslim student at Loyola University in Chicago, was skeptical of the report's findings that said Americans were more familiar with Islam.

"If they are learning Islam through mass media and pop culture, that's easily accessible stuff," she said. "I don't know that's the type of Islam that I would want to be infiltrated with."

The survey did not address where or how Americans were getting information about Islam.

Choudry said she has not experienced any discrimination personally, but feels that Muslims on the whole are treated differently.

"We do suffer discrimination, which is the consequence of a lack of knowledge or ignorance," she said.

Most of the findings came from a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted Aug. 11-17 among 2,010 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5%. Some findings also came from another survey of 2,003 adults conducted Aug. 20-27.

Hooper said continuing education about Islam is the key to fighting prejudice. In June, CAIR began a campaign to distribute free copies of the Quran to 100,000 local and national leaders, from President Obama to local school principals.

"When knowledge about Islam goes up, prejudice goes down," Hooper said.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-09-09-muslim-american_N.htm