An Assistant Professor of Arab Politics at the Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies in the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University, Washington DC, Dr Shehata had given a presentation on Thursday at the inaugural symposium of SFS in Qatar.
Negative American views about Islam ‘worrying’
ATTITUDES towards Arabs, Muslims and Islam in the US are troubling and have not been improving over the last few years, Arab-American academic Dr Shehata has stated, quoting results of a number of opinion polls conducted in the US.
“A high percentage of Americans hold negative attitudes toward Islam, and many Americans believe that Islam – more than other religions – encourages violence,” he told Gulf Times.
According to the Washington Post/ABC News polls, the percentage of Americans who hold unfavourable views of Islam has risen over the last three years.
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, 39% of those polled stated that they held unfavourable views of Islam. This figure dropped to a low of 24% by January 2002 but has been steadily increasing ever since.
In the most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll released in March 2006, 46% of Americans said they held unfavourable views of Islam.
There is less variation in the polling data regarding American opinion about Islam and violence. All of the various polling data confirm that a high percentage of Americans believe that Islam – more than other religions – encourages violence.
A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted last summer, for example, found that 53% of respondents favoured “requiring all Arabs, including US citizens, to undergo special, more intensive security checks before boarding airplanes in the US” and 46% favoured “requiring Arabs, including US citizens, to carry a special ID.”
The coverage of the Middle East and the Muslim World in the US is dominated by the Iraq war, Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, terrorism and beheadings.“This type of bad or negative news dominates coverage and Islam, in the process, becomes synonymous with jihad; jihad, of course, understood in a particular way: as irrational, unjustified, religiously based violence, usually against non-Muslims.”
Complete article HERE
Wild Thing’s comment……
“46% of Americans said they had an unfavorable view of islam”
They must have polled a lot of the left ( Democrats/liberals) I think the number would be a heck of a lot higher.
“A high percentage of Americans hold negative attitudes toward Islam, and many Americans believe that Islam – more than other religions – encourages violence,” he told Gulf Times.”
Lip service by the Islam organizations belie the actions of Islam. Iran is a good example of Islam’s hatred for everything and anybody not Muslim.
Muslims do things like riot over cartoons that have been out for 4 or 5 months before they riot, causing deaths. Maybe it is because over 90 percent of terrorists in the world are muslims and, just maybe, because muslims drove airplanes into the world trade center and the pentagon and caused another plane to crash killing all on board on 9/11. Most of the terror and atrocities are committed by muslims, not arabs per se, but definately muslims
Chrissie
You hit it right on the money again.Most thinking people that can read in this country understand tha Islam is a violent cult.Islam since it’s enception has only spread through murder and intimidation. It makes The Jim Jones people look like pikers.
Gee. Since its inception, islam leaders and followers have done nothing but “preach” about killing the infidel, conquer their lands, rape the women and girls, etc. Death and destruction are all that this “religion” and its followers know. The only peace it has is peace of the grave for its victims.
I worry like hell about the 54% of Americans that do not have an unfavorable view of Islam. Or maybe it was a skewed poll, only asking moslems, and maybe even 46% of them don’t like that screwball cult, heh, heh.
Just how is removing the head of a teacher
for teaching Girls showing peace and love?
If it looks like a duck,quacks like a duck
walks like a duck well, you tell me…
when I first tried to open your web this am
it was a no go!! here is a cut and paste from
M M ***scroll for updates…1230pm EDT Looks like the problem may be resolved, though several blogs still down…Glenn Reynolds confirms the attack originated in Saudi Arabia, as I suspected***
WHY NOT SEND THEM A SPAM BOMB,YOU KNOW JUST
FOR A GRIN…
Jack it sure does make them look like pikers you are so right.
razOr I had to laugh when I read this by that man. To think or even imagine any of us would fall for let’s just all get along, well there is no way. haha
Tom haha I was wondering who the heck they are too. Maybe Democrats or maybe they only questioned Muslims like you said. giggle
Tincan Sailor thank you. I couldn’t post either so we went to the movie United 93 and just got back. Thank you for telling me about Michelle Malkin’s blog talking about the attack.
I like the idea of a counter spam bomb, except our should be Nuclear.
DE644…DDR742!!!
DE644 Yessss and we win! tah dah!