Americans Don’t Like Islam So Much

Well that’s the takeaway from this Gallup poll that found that a majority of Americans (53%) have an unfavorable view of Islam.
(I don’t quite get the Buddhism hate - can Richard Gere do that much harm?)

Thanks to Spengler here’s a chart tracking how many people say Islam is very different from their own religion:

After 9/11 I believe most Americans wanted to be fair and were willing to hold any judgment of Muslims in abeyance expecting that they would be the first to condemn and root out the terrorists and the radical interpretations of Islam driving them. But sadly in the 10 years since then the actions of Muslims have been rather underwhelming.

I can think of at most maybe one or two times that I’ve heard an Muslim in the media denounce terrorism without the inevitable ‘but’ appearing somewhere. And while surveys of Muslims show a majority oppose terrorism, the fact that 20%+ are okay with suicide bombing is not exactly reassuring.

And there’s now a pattern of Islamic figures held up as moderate role models turning out to be quite radical when examined closely - the Ground Zero Mosque’s Imam Rauf is just the latest example of this. Frankly the American people have shown remarkable sensitivity and tolerance towards Muslims despite 9/11. A tolerance seldom reciprocated by Muslim groups here or abroad.

Plus since 9/11 Americans have become much more knowledgeable about Islam in general. As Spengler points out over a million American soldiers and civilians have had first hand experience with sharia and Islam as it’s actually practiced in the middle east. All of this has contributed I think to a general souring of Americans towards Muslims in America and Islam in general.

The MSM likes to portray this all as uninformed hate and fear of the other. But maybe Americans took good long look at Islam and decided they didn’t like what they saw.

posted by Maetenloch at 06:16 PM

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