WASHINGTON, Nov 2: Muslims in the United States have increased their participation in political and social activities since 9/11, says a nationwide survey recently released by a US- based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group. The poll says that roughly half of American Muslims surveyed say they have increased their social (58 per cent), political (45 per cent), inter-faith (52 per cent) and public relations activities (59 per cent) since the 9/11 terror attacks.
Almost three-fourths (70 per cent) of Muslim respondents said they feel free to practice their faith without restrictions and 86 per cent said they had experienced an act of kindness from people of other faiths.
Those figures are balanced by the high number of respondents — 88 per cent — who said they knew of at least one person who suffered anti-Muslim bias or discrimination in the past year. Fifty-six per cent said they themselves had experienced discrimination.
The poll of 644 individuals, conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, indicates that almost half of American Muslims, 49 per cent, say they are now more public about their Muslim identity while 42 per cent said they have increased donations to local or national Islamic organizations.
The survey showed that most of the American-Muslims favoured the following Democratic Party candidates: Howard Dean (26 per cent), Dennis Kucinich (11 per cent), John Kerry (seven per cent), and Carol Moseley Braun (six per cent). Only two percent said they would vote for President George W. Bush. The president also fared poorly on domestic and international issues of importance to Muslims. Only 10 per cent respondents supported the president’s Iraq policy.
When asked to name the political party that best represents the interests of the American Muslim community, more respondents named the Democratic Party (27 per cent) and Green party (25 per cent) than the Republican Party (three per cent). A large number (44 per cent) said none of the parties represented their interests.
On domestic issues, Muslims said they support inter-faith dialogue (89 per cent) besides favouring lower taxes (55 per cent) as a way to boost the economy.
Other poll results are as follows:
* 34 per cent of respondents were of South Asian heritage; 23 per cent from the Arabic-speaking world;
* 83 per cent are registered to vote; 63 per cent voted in 2000
* 34 per cent attended a mosque at least once a week; 37 per cent do so more frequently
Muslims from more than 41 states (and the District of Columbia) responded to the survey, with the most responses coming from California (21 per cent), Texas (eight per cent), Virginia (eight per cent), New York (seven per cent), Florida (seven per cent), Illinois (six per cent), Michigan (four percent) and New Jersey (four per cent).