According to a new poll, Americans give a higher level of importance in preserving the religious freedom of Christians than for other faith groups. And they rank Muslims as the least deserving of the protections. Firm majorities said it was extremely or very important for the U.S. to sustain religious freedom in general. However, the percentages differed to a great extent when respondents were asked about certain faith traditions, according to a poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
82 percent said religious liberty protections were necessary for Christians, in comparison with 61 percent who had similar perceptions about Muslims. At least seven in 10 said preserving Jews’ religious freedom was important, while 67 percent said so of Mormons. People who identified as having no religion were ranked about even with Muslims in needing support to live out their beliefs.
According to Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute, the findings contemplate deep divisions among Americans about the very definition of religious liberty, which has taken on newly politicized meanings in a time of debate over gay marriage and the threat from Islamic extremists.
“Religious freedom is now in the eye of the beholder,” Haynes said. “People in different traditions, with different ideological commitments, define religious freedom differently.”
The poll was conducted Dec. 10 through Dec. 13, following extremist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, and during intensifying anti-Muslim oratory by Donald Trump and several other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. The uproar has led to a spike in vandalism of mosques and harassment of U.S. Muslims over the last month.
Americans gave the government reasonable marks on protecting religious liberties, with 55 percent saying it does a very or somewhat good job, while 27 percent say it’s doing a poor job. On protecting several other rights, too, the government generally finds approval. Seven in 10 say it does at least a somewhat good job protecting the right to vote, and nearly six in 10 say it’s doing a good job of protecting freedom of speech and press.
However, only four in 10 Americans rate the government’s performance as good about protecting the right to equal protection under the law, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, or the right to bear arms.
Democrats are sufficiently more likely than Republicans to say the government is doing a good job of protecting the right to freedom of religion, 64 percent to 49 percent. Americans are similarly concerned about both domestic terrorism and possible attacks by Islamic extremist groups, with about six in 10 saying they’re at least somewhat concerned about each.
The poll finds that Democrats and Republicans are about equally likely to say they’re concerned about domestic terrorism, but Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say they’re concerned about attacks by Islamic extremists, 67 percent to 47 percent.
“These numbers seem to be part of a growing climate of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States,” said Madihha Ahussain, an attorney for Muslim Advocates, a California-based civil rights group. “This climate of hatred has contributed to dozens of incidents of anti-Muslim violence in recent weeks.”
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