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发帖数: 29846 | 1 (Reuters) - A majority of U.S. Muslims are content with the nation's
direction in contrast to many Americans and few Muslims believe there is
support for Islamic extremism here, a survey released on Tuesday found.
With the 10th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks on New York and the
Pentagon approaching, the Pew Research Center found that most Muslims felt
ordinary Americans were friendly or neutral toward them.
In contrast to the majority of the general public dissatisfied with the
nation's direction, 56 percent of the estimated 2.75 million American
Muslims said they are satisfied, the survey showed. Seven out of 10 view
President Barack Obama's tenure favourably.
"On a variety of measures, Muslims in America are very content with their
own lives and with the communities where they live," Pew researcher Greg
Smith said in an interview.
Four out of five Muslim Americans surveyed were satisfied with the way
things are going in their lives and rated their communities very positively
as places to live.
"We've seen Muslims move in a different direction than the rest of the
country (with more) believing America is going in the right direction,"
Smith said.
Only 6 percent of Muslims in the survey of slightly more than 1,000 surveyed
by telephone between April and July said they there is a great deal of
support for Islamic extremism in Muslim-American communities. Another 15
percent said there is a fair amount of support among U.S. Muslims of
extremism.
Among the general public, four in 10 believe extremism is supported in the
Muslim American community, researchers said.
Pew last surveyed American Muslims in 2007, and researchers compared their
attitudes in light of various disputes over mosque building, attacks on
Muslims and mosques, a heating up of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and
hearings in the U.S. Congress about the threat of home-grown Muslim
terrorism.
Since 2007, there has been little change in how Muslim Americans see how
they are viewed by the rest of America, with 28 percent saying other
Americans viewed them suspiciously and 22 percent saying they had been
called offensive names. Only 6 percent said they had been threatened or
attacked, while 38 percent were bothered by their sense that they were
singled out for increased government surveillance.
In response to questions about being a Muslim in the United States since the
Sept. 11 attacks, 55 percent said it is more difficult while 37 percent saw
no change.
Two-thirds of those survey said the quality of life for Muslims in the
United States is better than in most Muslim countries.
In 2007 only one-quarter of Muslim Americans believed the U.S.-led war on
terrorism was sincere, while 43 percent surveyed this year believed the
effort was sincere.
The survey found nearly seven in 10 Muslim Americans said the Muslim
community is cooperating to the extent it should with U.S. law enforcement -
- an issue raised in congressional hearings. However, only one-third said U.
S. Muslim leaders had spoken out sufficiently against extremism.
Muslim American attitudes toward terror attacks and al Qaeda had not changed
much in four years, with 81 percent saying suicide bombings and other
violence against civilians to defend Islam were never justified, with 1
percent saying it was often justified.
Only 5 percent had a somewhat or very favourable view of al Qaeda, with a
growing majority of 70 percent holding very unfavourable views of the group.
The general level of satisfaction among American Muslims was reflected in
the 76 percent who approved of Obama's performance as president -- nine out
of 10 said they voted for the Democrat in 2008. Muslim support for Obama
contrasts with unfavourable views of his Republican predecessor, George Bush.
There are an estimated 1.8 million Muslim adults in the United States,
including U.S.-born converts, a 300,000 increase since 2007. Two-thirds were
born in other countries.
The survey had an error margin of 5 percentage points. |
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