American Muslims vary from common assumptions

Juan Cole, Truth Dig

The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding published a new opinion poll on America’s Muslims and other religious groups this week, which contains some surprises. One important finding is that mosque attendance is associated with strong identification as an American and strong civic participation as well as with opposition to violence toward civilians, whether committed by the state or by non-state actors. That is, people like Donald Trump who equate mosques with radicalism and just plan wrong.

Here are other results by the numbers:

5% – The proportion of Muslims who lean Republican. Muslims are the most Democratic religious group in the country save for Jews, but a bigger proportion of Jews identify as Republicans than do Muslims.

50% – The proportion of Muslims under age 35; Muslims are the youngest US religious community. The proportion of Protestants under 35 is only a quarter.

78% – Proportion of Muslims who think President Obama is doing a good job. This is 15 points more than any other group.

40% – The proportion of Muslims who favor Hillary Clinton for president. Assumptions that the community is patriarchal would be wrong.

27% – The proportion of Muslims who favor Bernie Sanders for president. This percentage is actually larger than the 24 percent of Jews who lean to Sanders, who is himself Jewish. Worth repeating: A larger proportion of American Muslims supports Sanders than the proportion of American Jews who do.

4% – Proportion of Muslim-Americans who support Donald Trump. This is the lowest of any major faith community in the US. This poll found 13% support for Trump among Jews and 28% among Catholics.

58% – the proportion of Muslims who say they have suffered religious discrimination in the past year (the highest of any religious community, though Jews are not far behind).