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CNN Poll: Most Americans ‘OK’ With A Mosque In Their Community

26 March 2011

By Juan Cole

Editor’s Note: CNN’s Soledad O’Brien chronicles the dramatic fight over the construction of a mosque in the heart of the Bible belt. Soledad O’Brien Reports “Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door”, Sunday at 8 p.m. E.T. on CNN.

By Debra Goldschmidt, CNN

Would you be “OK” with a mosque in your community?

According to a new national poll, most Americans say yes, they would.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday found that 69%of Americans would be “OK” with a mosque in their area while 28% would not.

But there are big differences depending on where you live. Half of rural Southerners say they disapprove of a mosque in their neighborhood, while 42 % say they would be “OK” with it.

That rises to roughly three-quarters among those who live in cities and suburbs.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, anti-mosque activity across the country, ranging from vandalism to lawsuits, has occurred in 21 states over the past five years.

Positive views of Muslim Americans are on the rise since 2002, according to the new poll, which found 46% of all Americans have a favorable view of American Muslims today, and 26% say they have an unfavorable view.

“Overall, positive views of American Muslims have risen since 2002, when memories of 9/11 were still fresh in most Americans’ minds,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “In 2002, as the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, only 39 percent of all Americans said they had a favorable view of Muslims.”

Americans in the South and rural communities are far less likely to have a favorable view of American Muslims, with just 32% saying they hold such views.

Thirty seven percent of rural Southerners say they don’t know enough to have an opinion.

When it comes to attitudes towards the Muslim faith itself, however, American opinions haven’t changed much.

“In 2002, 28 percent of all Americans had a favorable view of Islam and 33 percent feel that way today,” Holland says.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey was conducted March 11-13, with 1,023 people questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Democrat Announces Alternate Hearings On U.S. Muslims - Richard Yeakley

Barely two weeks after House Republicans held hearings on the threat posed by radicalized American Muslims, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat announced his own hearings on threats to American Muslims’ civil rights.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made no mention of the March 10 hearings by the House Homeland Security Committee that reduced the first Muslim elected to Congress to tears.

Instead, Durbin cited a spike “in anti-Muslim bigotry,” including the burning of Qurans and an increase in hate crimes and hate speech toward Muslims. Durbin will convene the hearings on March 29 as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights.

“During the course of our history, many religions have faced intolerance,” said Durbin, the assistant Senate majority leader, in announcing the hearings on Tuesday (March 22).

“It is important for our generation to renew our founding charter’s commitment to religious diversity and to protect the liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which helped lead the opposition to the House hearings convened by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., welcomed the change in tone from the other end of Capitol Hill.

“This is a very positive development,” said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, who called the civil rights of Muslims “a necessary topic to discuss.”

Recent years have seen a rise in negative reactions toward Muslims, Hooper said, citing opposition to building the Park 51 Islamic community center near Ground Zero, arson attacks and the bombing of a mosque in Jacksonville, Fla. A civilized discussion on the civil rights of all Americans is long overdue, he said.

And although Durbin did not bill his hearing as a direct response to King’s, “it will be perceived that way,” at least among U.S. Muslims, Hooper said.

Scheduled witnesses for the hearing include Farhana Khera, president and executive director of San Francisco-based Muslim Advocates; retired Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick; Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Tom Perez and Alex Acosta, who held the same position under former President George W. Bush.

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