The Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute yesterday
released a new report titled
What It Means to be an American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten Years after 9/11. Much of the 41-page report focuses on mixed attitudes of Americans toward Muslims. Here is an excerpt:
Americans strongly affirm the principles of religious freedom, religious
tolerance, and separation of church and state. Nearly 9-in-10 (88 percent)
Americans agree that America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for
everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular. Ninety-five percent of
Americans agree that all religious books should be treated with respect even if we
don’t share the religious beliefs of those who use them. Nearly two-thirds (66
percent) of Americans agree that we must maintain a strict separation of church
and state.
As a number of findings below demonstrate, however, Americans do not always
apply these principles evenly or consistently....
... More than 8-in-10 Americans ... report
holding favorable views of Catholics (83 percent) and Jews (84 percent).... Mormons are
viewed favorably by two-thirds (67 percent) of the public, and a majority of the
public also reports holding a favorable view of American Muslims (58 percent).
Atheists are viewed least positively of any religious or ethnic group with less than
half (45 percent) of the public reporting a favorable view....
Americans are evenly divided over whether the values of Islam are at odds with
American values and way of life.... There are large
differences of opinion by political and religious affiliation, age, and trusted media
source.....By a margin of 2-to-1, the general public rejects the notion that American
Muslims ultimately want to establish Shari’a law as the law of the land in the U.S.
(61 percent disagree, 30 percent agree)....
Americans employ a double standard when evaluating violence committed by
self-identified Christians and Muslims. Americans are much more willing to say
that Muslims who commit
violence in the name of
Islam are really Muslims
than they are to say that
Christians who commit
violence in the name of
Christianity are really
Christians.
Another section of the report deals with attitudes toward immigrants and immigration.
