Poll: Growing bias against Muslims

WASHINGTON – As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The poll found that nearly half of Americans – 46 percent – have a negative view of Islam, 7 percentage points higher than in the tense months following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.

The survey comes at a time of increasing tension, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq show little sign of ending and as members of Congress seek to block the Bush administration’s attempt to allow an Arab company to manage some operations at several of the nation’s ports. Also, Americans are reading news of deadly protests in the Arab world over a Danish cartoon depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

According to the poll, the proportion of Americans who believe that Islam helps to stoke violence against non-Muslims has more than doubled since the attacks, from 14 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent today.

The survey also found that 1 in 3 Americans have heard prejudiced comments about Muslims lately. In a separate question, slightly more (43 percent) reported having heard negative remarks about Arabs. One in four Americans admitted to harboring prejudice toward Muslims, the same proportion that expressed some personal bias against Arabs.

Though the two groups are often linked in popular discourse, most of the world’s Muslims are not of Arab descent. For example, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population is Indonesia.

A total of 1,000 randomly selected Americans were interviewed March 2-5 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said he is not surprised by the poll’s results. Politicians, authors and media commentators have demonized the Arab world since 2001, he said.

“The intensity has not abated and remains a vein that’s very near the surface, ready to be tapped at any moment,” Zogby said. “Members of Congress have been exploiting this over the ports issue. Radio commentators have been talking about it nonstop.”