American hypocrisy exposed!

An op-ed article, "Muslim True/False" recently published in the Los Angeles Times is alarmingly revealing not only about the American public but also their ignorance of the Muslim faith. It illustrates the unfavorable biases of Americans concerning Islam.

Polls show that almost 66% percent of Americans have prejudice against Muslims, one in every five American is "greatly prejudiced" against them, most do not want them as neighbors and believe they are disloyal to the United States because of their religion. These statistics are shocking. In a country where freedom of religion is preached and democracy hailed, these results expose the intolerance found in America.

The research group Gallup surveyed more than 1 billion Muslims around the world, making it the most extensive and detailed survey of the Muslim population. These surveys greatly contradicted the biases of the American public. Most of these Muslims are against terrorism, believe in equal rights of men and women, etc.

The article claims that not only are these prejudices hindering our ability to fight the war on terror globally but also "weaken[ing] our democracy." With upcoming presidential elections, Obama's chances of winning the presidency might decrease only because his father was a Muslim. Is this what the American democracy is all about? Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Why is religion ruling the sentiments and democracy of America?

Additionally, media is to be partly blamed for this phenomenon. Media's anti-Islamic views threaten the work of interfaith organizations, which attempt to end discrimination and ignorance by open dialogues and discussions about their faiths.

This article should propagate Americans to learn about Islam and for that matter other religions before coming to conclusions. Rather than relying upon a biased media, it is important for Americans to examine religion and its adherents from an impartial perspective. That is the only way forward towards a world free of discrimination and prejudice.

New Survey on Muslim Americans

The Pew Research Center just released a survey on Muslim in America entitled “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream” which collected information ranging from religious beliefs to thoughts about foreign policy and terrorism. The survey is over 100 pages long so here are some interesting highlights, which contain very distorded information. (Statistics about Muslims in European, African, and Middle Eastern Countries and about Christians in the United States come from other surveys conducted by the Pew center in 2006).

One important issue the survey asked about was Islamic extremism and suicide bombings. According to the poll, Muslim Americans are more likely to reject Islamic extremism than Muslims who live in Europe. When asked the question “Can suicide bombings of civilian targets to defend Islam be justified?” 1% answered often, 7 % said sometimes, 5 % said rarely, and 78% said never. (53) Also, “younger Muslim in the U.S. are more likely than older Muslim Americans to express a strong sense of Muslim identity, and are much more likely to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified.” (1)

Muslims in France, Spain, and Great Britain are twice as likely to say suicide bombings are justified (around 16%), while 46% of Muslims in Nigeria answered often/sometimes and in Jordan and Egypt around 28% answered often/sometimes. (53) Therefore, the survey concludes that “absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.” (1,2)

When it comes to assimilation, “the survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. With the exception of very recent immigrants, most report that a large proportion of their closest friends are non-Muslims." (2) In addition, when asked if they thought of themselves first as Muslim or American, 47% answered Muslim. Interestingly, according to another Pew Center poll, in Britain 81% of Muslims see themselves as Muslim first while 42% of Christians view themselves as Christians first. (31)

Concerning the issue of Israel, the survey found that 61% of Muslim Americans say that a way can be found for the state of Israel to exist so that the rights of the Palestinians are addressed. (55) Only 16 percent said that “the rights and needs of the Palestinians cannot be taken care of as long as Israel exists”, which is low compared to the response to this question in Morocco, 90%, and Lebanon, 75%.

The survey also compares Muslim practices with Christian practices. One of the questions asked was "Is the Koran/Bible the literal word of God?" 86% of Muslims said the Koran is the word of God, and 50% said it is literally word for word, while 78% of Christians said the Bible if the word of God, and only 40% say that it is literally word for word. 72% of Muslims said that religion was very important in their lives, compared to 60% of Christians.

These are only a few issues that the survey covers. It also asks questions about issues such as President Bush, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and views on homosexuality. You don’t need to read the whole document, you can just look at the boxes with the survey information on each page. The survey can be found here.