About 49 percent of people think at least some Muslims living in the United States harbor anti-American sentiments, a new Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday has found.
Roughly 24 percent say “some” U.S. Muslims are anti-American, compared to 14 percent who said “about half” and another 11 percent who said “almost all or most” are. However, 42 percent think “just a few” or “none” have animosity toward Americans, while 9 percent said they don’t know.
Another survey done by Pew in December found that 46 percent of Americans think Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence, and that 49 percent say they are “very concerned” about the rise of Islamic extremism in the U.S.
Though people are worried about Islamic extremism, most people think the problem with violence committed in the name of religion is the person committing it, rather than the religion. In general, 68 percent think that extremists use religion as a justification for violence, though 14 percent do think Islam’s teachings promote violence.
When it comes to addressing Islamic extremism, respondents are divided on how they think the next U.S. president should handle it. Half of those polled say the next president should “be careful to not criticize Islam as a whole when speaking about Islamic extremists,” while 40 percent say the next president should “speak bluntly about Islamic extremists even if the statements are critical of Islam as a whole.”
The telephone survey of 2,009 U.S. adults was conducted Jan. 7-14 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
