Many Americans Oppose Building Mosques; Many Americans Also Admit that They’re Bigots

[marmar]

from AlterNet:




Posted by Joshua Holland at 4:51 pm
August 16, 2010

Many Americans Oppose Building Mosques; Many Americans Also Admit that They’re Bigots
Posted by Joshua Holland on @ 4:51 pm


The pollsters tell us that a majority of Americans “oppose” the Park 51 project. As I noted a couple of weeks back, that’s not a terribly helpful finding because it doesn’t differentiate between people who are vaguely uncomfortable with the project and the wack-jobs who would suspend the Constitution to have the government step in and do something about it.

But it does tell us something about the state of public opinion towards Islam. What else do opinion polls tell us? Well, for one thing, a lot of Americans aren’t afraid to admit that they hold rather bigoted views of Muslims.

Marc Ambinder:

38 percent of Americans in 2006 said they would never vote for a Muslim for president, just about the number who said they would never vote for a gay person. In December of 2004, Cornell released a survey showing that half of Americans consciously told a pollster that they would favor a curtailment of civil rights for Muslims. About 40 percent of Republicans had explicitly anti-Muslim views in the survey…. As of 2010, 43 percent of Americans admitted feeling bias against Muslims.

I’m pretty sure a large share of those who would tell a pollster that they “feel bias” towards blacks are uncomfortable with the idea of inter-racial dating, but who cares what they think? So it should be with all this mosque hysteria gripping a significant share of the population.


http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/08/16/many-americans-oppose-building-mosques-many-americans-also-admit-that-theyre-bigots/

[Brooklyns_Finest]

1. I wonder how the stats

Look among the different groups in America. How do the opinions of whites, blacks, hispanics and Asians differ in regards to this issue. I wouldn't be surprised if their responses were relatively consistent.

[HipChick]

2. Did anyone poll Native Americans to see how they feel about things being built on

land they consider sacred?

[mmonk]

3. Well after 9/11, they were told by the government and the press

that the Muslim world was looking for a clash of civilizations and attacked us because they hate our freedoms. Americans are if anything obediently gullible, especially after the sudden shock. I think that is why they don't mind us having torture systems, Qur'an burnings, and they talk about nuking the middle east all the time. They are trained.

[sohndrsmith]

4. I am so stymied by this blanket anti-Muslim sentiment... Am I simply naive?

It isn't rocket science to discern the difference between:

A certain faith/religion (which by default has the right and freedom to be practiced in this country, thank... um... goodness) -

and

A group (or even several groups) of violent, insane murderers who may or may not claim some irrational destructive distortion of a particular faith as the basis of their cause.

It is also stunning to me that I hear truly stupid statements that make analogies to a religion as being equivalent to a devastating military attack or an evil holocaust. Nazism is not a religion. Nor is Japanese kamikaze or extremist suicidal hijacking.... even if they claim otherwise!.

As ugly as our nation-building mistakes have been (they are big and do exist even if we pretend they don't), the beauty and genius of our Constitution is also enormous and testament to what is right and good about the founding and building and cause behind these United States.

I do NOT and will never understand how supposedly politically and historically astute persons and leaders seem to have absolutely **no** clue about how important (and why!) our absolute principle for religious freedom - even our very existence being fully (not largely, not partially, but totally) dependent on the acceptance of those who are not familiar, who speak, eat, celebrate and often practice faith in unfamiliar ways - but want to be here and without them - this country would not be what it is. Sadly, it is also full of shame and dishonor, but we pretend and present a more favorable history (to our disservice, in my view).

When one religion - not the bad acts of those who distort and falsely credit that religion - becomes something we as Americans cannot tolerate... even in the face of massive evidence of peaceful practitioners who are positive contributors to our communities and country.... then this will be a country who's vision and goodness is one I no longer recognize. That's scary.