Donald Trump’s hardline rhetoric on Muslims throughout this election season may be coming back to haunt him on Nov. 8.
Nearly three-fourths, 72 percent, of Muslims plan to vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to the results of a survey from the Council on American-Islamic Relations released Thursday. Only 4 percent said they would pull the lever for Trump.
What’s more, most Muslims (86 percent) say they will participate on Election Day, while 12 percent is undecided.
There were 3.3 million Muslims of all ages in the United States in 2015, the Pew Research Center reported in January, comprising about 1 percent of the entire U.S. population.
In June, CAIR, a Muslim rights group, reported that more than a quarter million Muslims registered to vote since the last presidential election, bringing the number up to 824,000 registered Muslim voters. The group suggested one reason for the surge was “increased political involvement resulting from rhetorical attacks on that faith community by public figures.”
Thursday’s survey release suggests that the surge in Muslim Americans registering to vote may have extended into the fall.
The random-sample poll also found that among the top six important issues to American Muslim voters are “civil rights, education, jobs and the economy, protecting students from bullying and harassment, a proposed ban on Muslims traveling to the U.S., and terrorism and national security.”
CAIR considers Trump a threat to Muslims in America, tying his “Islamaphobic” rhetoric to a spike in anti-Muslim incidents in 2016.
Among his many controversial remarks during the primaries and general election, Trump has called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S., suggested a database to keep track of all Muslims in the U.S. and picked a fight with a Muslim Gold Star couple who appeared at the Democratic National Convention in July.
The results of CAIR’s random-sample poll show that perhaps Trump shot himself in the foot with Muslims, while also dragging down the Republican Party with the demographic.
Muslims’ view of the Republican Party soured of the last four years, with 62 percent saying the GOP was unfriendly toward Muslims in 2016, compared to 51 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, only 2 percent said the same of the Democratic Party in 2016, compared to 6 percent in 2012.
CAIR found that affiliation with the Republican Party “remained relatively steady,” though the numbers today (6 percent) shows a drop from 9 percent in 2012 and 8 percent in 2008.
The group made a point to say that with just under a month to go before Election Day, it’s not too late for the candidates to make a last minute appeal to the Muslim community.
“Our survey results indicate that presidential candidates still have time to appeal to American Muslim voters by addressing issues such as the erosion of civil rights and growing Islamophobia,” said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw in a statement.
The poll of 804 respondents, via telephone, was conducted using a database of people with two or more traditionally Muslim names.
Calls were conducted after the first presidential debate between Sept. 27 and Oct. 5, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, and a 95 percent confidence level.
