Posted on: Saturday, July 26, 2003

Poll finds Americans link Islam to violence

By Will Lester
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A new survey finds that 44 percent of Americans believe that Islam is more likely to encourage religious violence than other religions, a sharp spike from a year ago.

The latest survey, which examined religion, politics, gay marriages and other issues likely to have a bearing on the 2004 election, showed sharp differences in views on Islam and other issues.

According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the 44 percent who said they think Islam encourages violence compared to 25 percent who felt that way in March 2002. White evangelical Christians were more likely to say Islam promotes violence among its believers. The overall number who disagreed with that view dropped from 51 percent in March 2002 to 41 percent.

Among the survey respondents, 51 percent said they have a favorable view of Muslim Americans. This is basically unchanged from a year and half ago.

"For all the rise in concerns about Islam, we don't see much of an overt increase in hostility toward Muslim Americans," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. Muslim Americans, however, have complained about an increasing number of acts of violence against them and their institutions in the last year, said Mohamed Nimer, research director at the Council of American-Islamic Relations.

The perception among many Americans is that the animosity is mutual.

The poll showed 49 percent of respondents believe that a significant portion of Muslims around the world hold anti-American views, an increase from 36 percent who thought that was true a year ago. Nimer said Muslim responses to the United States have been quite varied, despite general opposition to the war in Iraq.

The poll was conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Religious divisions over several issues could play a significant role in the 2004 campaign, the survey suggested, and a potentially volatile issue is gay marriage.

The poll of 2,002 adults was conducted June 24 to July 8 and has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, larger for subgroups.