New Poll and Report: What it Means to be American Ten Years after 9/11

Americans wrestling with acceptance, concerns over place of Muslims and Immigrants in society

Washington, D.C.—Ten years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a major national survey finds America continuing to struggle with what it means to be American and wrestling with how to resolve political, religious and ethnic differences in an increasingly diverse country.
Americans believe they are safer, but that they have less personal freedom and that the country is less respected in the world than it was prior to September 11, 2001, a new major national survey from Public Religion Research Institute finds.

The survey is the basis for a new joint report entitled What it Means to be American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten Years after 9/11. The report was co-authored by Dr. Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox of Public Religion Research Institute and E.J. Dionneand William A. Galston of the religion, policy and politics project at the Brookings Institution.

"Ten years after 9/11, Americans continue to grapple with issues of security, tolerance, and pluralism - matters that lie at the heart of what it means to be American," said Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute. "Americans strongly affirm broad First Amendment principles and respect for difference, but they don't always apply these principles evenly or consistently, particularly with regard to American Muslims and immigrants."
The survey finds Americans struggling with their views of American Muslims. On the one hand, most Americans (54 percent) agree that Muslims are an important part of the U.S. religious community, and most report being generally comfortable with Muslims in a variety of social settings. On the other hand, Americans employ a double standard when evaluating violence committed by self-identified Christians and Muslims. More than 8-in-10 (83 percent) Americans say self-proclaimed Christians who commit acts of violence in the name of Christianity are not really Christians. In contrast, less than half (48 percent) of Americans say that self-proclaimed Muslims who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam are not really Muslims.

"Television news media also plays a powerful role in influencing views towards American Muslims," said Cox, PRRI research director. "Americans who say they most trust Fox News are significantly more likely to hold negative views about Islam and American Muslims."

"The ambivalence in the U.S. on the subject of immigration is one of the most powerful messages of the survey," said Galston of Brookings. "A solid majority supports a path to citizenship, but a slim majority also supports deportation of illegal immigrants. These tensions suggest that there is considerable room for persuasion and leadership."

Despite ambivalence on broader solutions, the survey finds solid support for the basic tenets of the DREAM Act: allowing illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to gain legal resident status if they join the military or go to college (57 percent favor, 40 percent oppose).

"The survey underscores that the country is in the midst of the kind of argument it has had again and again over diversity and immigration, and that this debate now has a strong partisan and ideological dimension, which it has not always had," said Dionne of Brookings. "The generational patterns—young people on the whole are more sympathetic than their elders to both immigration and diversity—suggest that over the long run, we will resolve these arguments, as we have in the past, in favor of inclusion. But in the short run, it will be a difficult and, at times, divisive debate."

Among the Findings:

• Ten years after the September 11th terrorist attacks, a small majority (53 percent) of Americans say that today the country is safer from terrorism than it was prior to the attacks. In contrast, nearly 8­in-10 (77 percent) say that Americans today have less personal freedom, and nearly 7-in-10 (69 percent) say that America is less respected in the world today than before the terrorist attacks.
• Americans strongly affirm First Amendment principles. Nearly 9­in­10 (88 percent) Americans agree that America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular. Ninety-five percent of Americans agree that all religious books should be treated with respect even if we don't share the religious beliefs of those who use them. Nearly two­thirds (66 percent) of Americans agree that we must maintain a strict separation of church and state.
• Americans are evenly divided over whether the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life (47 percent agree, 48 percent disagree). There are strong partisan and ideological divides on this question.
• By a margin of 2-to-1, the general public rejects the notion that American Muslims ultimately want to establish Shari'a law as the law of the land in the U.S. (61 percent disagree, 30 percent agree).
• Nearly 8-in-10 (79 percent) Americans say people in Muslim countries have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S., including 46 percent who say Muslims have a very unfavorable opinion of the U.S. Among this group, three-quarters believe that such views are not justified.
• A majority (53 percent) of Americans believe the growing number of newcomers emigrating from other countries strengthens American society, compared to the 42 percent who say that newcomers threaten traditional American customs and values. There are also large partisan and ideological divides on this question.
• Nearly half (46 percent) of Americans agree that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities. A slim majority (51 percent) disagree.
• Ironically, the general public is significantly more likely to say that immigrants are changing American society (53 percent) than to say immigrants are changing their own community (38 percent). Conservatives are significantly more likely than liberals to say that immigrants are changing American society a lot and that this is a bad thing.
• When Americans are asked to choose between a comprehensive approach to immigration reform that couples enforcement with a path to citizenship on the one hand, and an enforcement and deportation only approach on the other, Americans prefer the comprehensive approach to immigration reform over the enforcement only approach by a large margin (62 percent vs. 36 percent).

To read the full report or see the survey questionnaire and methodology, please click here: http://www.publicreligion.org/research/?id=680
The survey was designed and conducted by Public Religion Research Institute. Results of the survey were based on 2,450 bilingual (Spanish and English) telephone interviews, including 804 cell phone interviews, conducted between August 1, 2011 and August 14, 2011. The margin of error is +/-2.0 percentage points for the general sample at the 95 percent confidence interval.
Public Religion Research Institute is a non-profit, nonpartisan research and education organization specializing in work at the intersection of religion, values and public life.

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New Pew Research Center Survey Finds Moderate Attitudes Among Muslim Americans

No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism

Washington, D.C.—As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, a comprehensive public opinion survey by the Pew Research Center finds no indication of increased alienation or anger among Muslim Americans in response to concerns about home-grown Islamic terrorists, controversies about the building of mosques and other pressures on this high-profile minority group in recent years. Nor does the new polling provide any evidence of rising support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans.

On the contrary, as found in the Pew Research Center's 2007 survey, Muslims in the United States continue to reject extremism by much larger margins than most other Muslim publics around the world, and many express concern about the possible rise of Islamic extremism. Very few Muslim Americans—just 1%—say that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets are often justified to defend Islam from its enemies; an additional 7% say suicide bombings are sometimes justified in these circumstances. Fully 81% say that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilians are never justified. Comparably small percentages of Muslim Americans express favorable views of al Qaeda, and the current poll finds more holding very unfavorable views of al Qaeda now than in 2007.

Nevertheless, a significant minority (21%) of Muslim Americans report that they see a great deal or a fair amount of support for extremism in the Muslim American community. That is far below the proportion of the general public that sees at least a fair amount of support (40%). And while nearly a quarter of the public (24%) thinks that Muslim support for extremism is increasing, just 4% of Muslims agree.

Since 2007, Muslim American views of U.S. efforts to combat terrorism have improved. Currently, opinion is divided—43% say U.S. efforts are a sincere attempt to reduce terrorism while 41% do not. Four years ago, during the Bush administration, more than twice as many viewed U.S. anti-terrorism efforts as insincere rather than sincere (55% to 26%).

However, concerns about Islamic extremism coexist with the view that life for U.S. Muslims in post-9/11 America is difficult in a number of ways. Significant numbers report being looked at with suspicion (28%), and being called offensive names (22%). And while 21% report being singled out by airport security, 13% say they have been singled out by other law enforcement. However, about the same percentage today as in 2007 say that life for Muslims in the U.S. has become more difficult since 9/11. The percentage reporting they are bothered at least some by their sense that Muslim Americans are being singled out for increased government surveillance also is no greater now than four years ago (38% vs. 39%).

Politically, Muslim Americans, who lean strongly Democratic, are much more satisfied than they were four years ago. Fully 76% approve of Barack Obama's job performance; in 2007, about as many (69%) disapproved of the way George Bush handled his job as president.
The survey of 1,033 Muslim Americans, conducted April 14–July 22 in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, also finds:

• Overall Satisfaction: Muslim Americans are overwhelmingly satisfied with the way things are going in their lives (82%) and continue to rate their communities very positively as places to live (79% excellent or good). Strikingly, Muslim Americans are far more satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. (56%) than is the general public (23%). Four years ago, Muslim Americans and the public at large rendered fairly similar judgments about the state of the nation.
  
• Muslim or American: A majority of Muslim Americans (56%) say that most Muslims who come to the U.S. want to adopt American customs and ways of life. In contrast, just a third (33%) of the general public believes that Muslims who come to the U.S. want to assimilate. Asked to choose, nearly half of Muslims in the U.S. (49%) say they think of themselves first as a Muslim, 26% say they think of themselves first as an American, and 18% say they are both. Among U.S. Christians, 46% say they identify as Christian first, while the same number identify as American first.
  
• Demographics: Based on data from the survey, Pew Research Center demographers estimate that there are about 1.8 million Muslim adults and 2.75 million Muslims of all ages (including children under 18) living in the United States in 2011. A 63% majority of Muslim Americans are first-generation immigrants to the U.S., with 45% having arrived in the U.S. since 1990. Slightly more than one-third (37%) were born in the U.S., including 15% who had at least one immigrant parent. About one-fourth of all Muslims are immigrants from the Middle East or North Africa, while 16% come from South Asia.
  
• Leadership: Nearly half of Muslim Americans (48%) say that Muslim leaders in the United States have not done enough to speak out against Islamic extremists; only about a third (34%) say Muslim leaders have done enough in challenging extremists. At the same time, 68% say that U.S. Muslims themselves are cooperating as much as they should with law enforcement.
  
• Mosque Controversy: A clear majority (72%) of Muslim Americans who are aware of the plan to build a mosque and Islamic center near the site of the World Trade Center say it should be allowed. More than a third (35%) say either that the project should not be allowed, or say it should be allowed but say it is a bad idea. A quarter of Muslim Americans report that mosques or Islamic centers in their communities have been the target of controversy or outright hostility.

The full report, Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism, is available on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press website. In addition, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life offers a variety of related online resources, including an updatedinteractive map, which shows the locations of 37 proposed mosques and Islamic centers that have encountered community resistance in the last three years.

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The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The center conducts public opinion polling, demographic studies, content analysis and other empirical social science research. It does not take positions on policy issues. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life is a project of the Pew Research Center; it delivers timely, impartial information on issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs in the U.S. and around the world. The Pew Research Center is an independently operated subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.