Americans Are More Likely To Like Muslims If They Know One

I know several Muslims from Iran who are absolutely the most wonderful, down to earth, kind, gentle, smart, amazing people you will ever meet. They believe in science and evolution and are just all around well rounded folks. I really appreciate this article for pointing out what I have thought all along because of my personal experiences with Muslims.



Americans Are More Likely To Like Muslims If They Know One

By Mona Chalabi


Not long after the executions of Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha and Deah Barakat in their apartment in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Tuesday, Craig Hicks handed himself in to police. A statement by police Wednesday said that although officials weren’t ruling out the possibility of a crime motivated by hate, their initial investigations suggested a parking dispute as a motive. The victims’ families strongly disagree, claiming that the suspect, who had reportedly shared anti-religious views on his Facebook page, “hated them for how they looked and who they were.”

Those claims come from a wider context of American Islamophobia.

Muslims are the most disliked religious group in the United States. But negative sentiment toward Muslims isn’t equally felt among different races, ages or educational groups — and once we look at who is most likely to dislike Muslims, we also get some clues as to why.

Last June, Pew Research Center asked 3,217 people in the U.S. to fill out a “feeling thermometer” about religious groups — the largest and most recent survey of its kind. Respondents were asked to rate members of each religion from 0 to 100; a score of 0 indicated a cold, negative sentiment and 100 indicated warm, positive feelings. In the numbers below, I’ve excluded responses from members of the group that was being rated.

More: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/americans-are-more-likely-to-like-muslims-if-they-know-one/?ex_cid=538fb