tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post921458945790056625..comments2024-03-27T15:36:44.737-07:00Comments on Haq's Musings: Trump's America Shutting Out Muslim RefugeesRiaz Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-80798826872174053692022-10-24T17:45:25.983-07:002022-10-24T17:45:25.983-07:00In the U.S. and Western Europe, people say they ac...In the U.S. and Western Europe, people say they accept Muslims, but opinions are divided on Islam<br />BY NEHA SAHGAL AND BESHEER MOHAMED<br /><br />https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/08/in-the-u-s-and-western-europe-people-say-they-accept-muslims-but-opinions-are-divided-on-islam/<br /><br />The vast majority of people across 15 countries in Western Europe and in the United States say they would be willing to accept Muslims as neighbors. Slightly lower shares on both sides of the Atlantic say they would be willing to accept a Muslim as a family member.<br /><br /><br />At the same time, there is no consensus on whether Islam fits into these societies. Across Western Europe, people are split on Islam’s compatibility with their country’s culture and values, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey. And in the U.S., public opinion remains about evenly divided on whether Islam is part of mainstream American society and if Islam is compatible with democracy, according to a 2017 poll.<br /><br />The vast majority of non-Muslim Americans (89%) say they would be willing to accept Muslims as neighbors, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The same survey finds that most people (79%) say they would be willing to accept Muslims as members of their family.<br /><br /><br />In Western Europe, most people also say they would be willing to accept Muslim neighbors. However, Europeans are less likely than Americans to say they would be willing to accept Muslims as family members. While about two-thirds of non-Muslim French people (66%) say they would accept a Muslim in their family, just over half of British (53%), Austrian (54%) and German (55%) adults say this. Italians are the least likely in Europe to say they would be willing to accept a Muslim family member (43%).<br /><br />Surveys in both the U.S. and Western Europe were conducted on the telephone, and due to the tendency of some respondents to give socially acceptable responses, may overstate the share of people willing to accept others (also known as social desirability bias).<br /><br />In both the U.S. and Europe, the surveys find higher acceptance of Muslims among those with more education. In the U.S., for example, 86% of adults with a college degree would be willing to accept a Muslim into their family; among Americans without a college degree, this share falls to 75%. Similarly, in Germany, a majority of those with a college education (67%) say they would be willing to accept a Muslim in their family, compared with roughly half (52%) among those without one. The same pattern is present in other countries, such as the UK (71% vs. 44%) and Austria (67% vs. 51%).<br /><br />On both sides of the Atlantic, attitudes toward Muslims are tied to politics, even after taking education, age and other demographic factors into account. In Western Europe, those who lean toward the right of the European political spectrum have less accepting views than those who lean toward the left. Likewise, in the U.S., those who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say they would be willing to accept a Muslim family member (88% vs. 67%). Still, majorities among both Democrats and Republicans say they would be willing to accept Muslims in their lives. Additional analysis of how other demographic factors (such as religion) are correlated with these kinds of attitudes in Europe can be found here.<br /><br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-84925024768185146572020-04-19T07:26:48.717-07:002020-04-19T07:26:48.717-07:00#Trump tweets #socialdistancing enforced different...#Trump tweets #socialdistancing enforced differently at mosques & churches. #Muslims calls remarks "insulting and frustrating on the eve of Ramadan … our president chooses to use his energy and platform to amplify the hateful words" of the original tweet."https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-04-18-20-intl/index.html<br /><br />President Donald Trump said Saturday that there "could be a difference” in how authorities enforce social distancing guidelines at mosques versus how they do at churches.<br /><br />This was in a response to a question regarding a post by conservative author and political commentator Paul E. Sperry he retweeted today.<br /><br /><br />Paul Sperry<br />@paulsperry_<br />Let's see if authorities enforce the social-distancing orders for mosques during Ramadan (April 23-May 23) like they did churches during Easter<br /><br /><br />Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, called Trump’s remarks "insulting and frustrating on the eve of Ramadan … our president chooses to use his energy and platform to amplify the hateful words" of the original tweet."<br /><br />"As is often the case, the President is yet again stoking anti-Muslim hate and sowing division at a time when he is failing to do his job," Khera said.<br /><br />Asked if he thought mosques might not follow the social distancing guidelines, Trump responded, "I don't think that at all. I'm somebody who believes in faith. It matters not what your faith is. But politicians treat different faiths differently. I don't know what happened with our country. But the Christian faith is treated much differently than it was, and I think it's treated unfairly."<br /><br />The retweet ignores the fact that President Trump is pushing for states to ease social distancing guidelines if they are ready to do so, and for weeks has been pushing for some of those restrictions to be lifted by May 1. Ramadan will be observed between April 23 and May 23 this year.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.com