19 December 2004	Sunday	06 Ziqa'ad 1425

WASHINGTON, Dec 18: Nearly one in two Americans believes the US government should restrict civil liberties for Muslim-Americans, reveals a nationwide survey conducted by Cornell University.

The survey also found respondents who identified themselves as highly religious supported restrictions on Muslim-Americans more strongly than those less religious.

The poll, which focuses on fears of terrorism, finds that 44 percent of the US population believe that Muslim Americans are a threat to society and should not be allowed to move freely.

The survey found that 27 per cent of respondents believe Muslim Americans should be required to register with federal law enforcement agencies, 26 percent say that investigators should monitor mosques and 29 percent that undercover police officers should infiltrate Islamic organizations. And 22 percent would accept profiling of Muslims and people with Middle Eastern ties.

The Media and Society Research Group in Cornell's School of Communications queried 715 people in a random nationwide telephone poll conducted between Oct 25 and Nov 23. The margin of error was 3.6 percentage points.

Forty-eight per cent of the respondents, however, said liberties should not be restricted in any way.

The survey found that Republicans are more likely to favour security over civil rights for Muslims than Democrats. Those who described themselves as religious Christians were more likely to perceive Islam as encouraging violence and Islamic countries as violent and dangerous than those who said they were not religious.

But the overwhelming majority of both groups said that Islam is unfair to women.

Researchers also found that respondents who paid more attention to television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks and support limiting the rights of Muslim-Americans, said Erik Nisbet, a senior research associate with Cornell's Survey Research Institute who helped design the survey.

"It's sad news. It's disturbing news. But it's not unpredictable," said Mahdi Baray, executive director of the Muslim American Society.

"It's not the first time in this country's history we've seen sentiment for restricting the civil liberties of a group of people. It's a sign of the times. The nation is at war, even if it's not a traditional war. We just have to remain vigilant and continue to interface."

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations responded to the survey by calling on America's elected officials to "recognize that Islamophobia is a growing phenomenon in American society that must be urgently addressed".

"Our nation and its values are diminished whenever any faith or ethnic group is viewed with such suspicion and hostility," said the council's executive director Nihad Awad.

James Shanahan, an associate professor of communications and a principal investigator in the study, said Cornell was not offering this data as a warning signal or to make policy decisions. "But our results highlight the need for continued dialogue about issues of civil liberties in this time of war."

The survey also found that when asked about the reason for the US "war on Terror", 42 percent said it was to prevent future terrorist attacks on the country, while another 12 percent said it was to bring peace and democracy to the Middle East.

"This is the explanation offered by the Bush administration so it would seem the views of the leadership are percolating down," Mr. Shanahan said. "The tough stance on civil liberties appears to be a bleed-over effect."

TV-RELIGION CORRELATION: While researchers said they weren't necessarily surprised by the overall level of support for restrictions, they were startled by the correlation with religion and exposure to television news.

"We need to explore why these two very important channels of discourse may nurture fear rather than understanding," Mr. Shanahan said.

He said researchers had expected the correlation with party affiliation but not with religion or television.

The survey found that Republicans favoured restrictions by an almost 2-to-1 margin over Democrats and Independents.