More and more Americans have a negative view of Islam and Muslims

The Left wing media backlash following revelations that Democrat convention Paki Muslim star Khizr Khan is in fact an operative of the Muslim Brotherhood, has resulted in the Washington Post doing yet another article on “Islamophobia,” implying that the growing hatred for Muslims in America is somehow unjustified.

Washington Post  For many Muslim Americans, these types of groundless suspicions — of their religion, or of their loyalty to the country — have become a familiar fact of living in the United States in the post-9/11 era. Public opinion polling has generally shown that substantial minorities, and in some cases majorities, of American citizens support treating Muslims differently than other religious groups, or otherwise hold negative views of Islam.

Here’s a rundown of what the latest polling says.

1. A majority of Americans support Trump’s Muslim travel ban.

As of June, half of all Americans supported Donald Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States. Support for the ban ticked upward after the shooting at an Orlando nightclub in June in which the shooter claimed allegiance to the Islamic State.

2. Americans view Muslims more negatively than members of any other religion.

Fully one-quarter of Americans say they hold a “mostly unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” opinion of American Muslims, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Before the unsurge in Muslim terrorist attacks in America and around the world, in 2014, the Pew Research Center asked Americans to rate their feelings toward various religious groups on a 0 to 100 scale, with 0 representing the most negative feelings and 100 the most positive. Americans placed Islam at the bottom of the scale, with a mean rating of 40 out of 100, just a hair behind atheists.

3. Over 40 percent of Americans admit to feeling prejudice toward Muslims.

A 2010 Gallup poll found that 43 percent of Americans said they felt at least a little prejudice toward Muslims. Nearly 1 in 10 admitted to a “great deal” of prejudice. These numbers were considerably higher than for any other religious group. (You can bet the numbers are much higher in 2016)

4. One-quarter of Americans think a special ID card for Muslims would prevent terrorist attacks.

A June 2014 Gallup poll found that 25 percent of American adults say that “requiring Muslims, including those who are U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID” would be an effective way to prevent terror incidents like the Orlando nightclub shooting.

Donald Trump has talked openly about creating a national registry for Muslim citizens. A CBS poll in December 2015 found that nearly half of Americans supported such an idea.

5. One-third of Americans want the government to keep a closer eye on Muslim citizens.

A March 2016 Pew poll found that one-third of American voters — including nearly two-thirds of Trump supporters — say that U.S. Muslims should be “subject to more scrutiny” solely because of their religion.

6. Half of Americans say that some or all American Muslims are anti-American.

And according to a February 2016 Pew Research Center poll, more than one in 10 Americans say that “most” or “almost all” American Muslims harbor anti-American views. Among conservative Republicans, that figure is nearly one in five.

7. Nearly half of Republicans say Islam encourages violence.

A December 2015 Quinnipiac poll found that 28 percent of all Americans said that “mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims.” Among Republicans, that figure was 47 percent. Only 13 percent of Democrats said the same.

8. Most Americans say Muslims haven’t done enough to oppose extremism.

A December 2015 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that over half of Americans said that “American Muslims have not done enough to oppose extremism in their own communities.”

9. Most Americans believe Muslims don’t want to assimilate into American society.

Although A majority of Muslim Americans (56 percent) said that most Muslims simply want to adapt the ways and customs of American life, as opposed to remaining distinct from American society at large, Americans aren’t buying it.  Tellingly, only 33 percent of the general public thought that most Muslims want to adapt the ways and customs of American life.