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morality. Among the general public, 51% worries about too much government involvement inprotecting morality.Consistent with their strong opposition to the war in Iraq, Muslim Americans expressoverwhelming disapproval of President Bush’s job performance. Just 15% approve of the wayBush is handling his job, while 69% disapprove. In Pew’s most recent poll of the general public,35% approved of Bush’s performance and 57% disapproved.A sizable majority of Muslim Americans (63%) identify with or lean to the DemocraticParty. This compares with 51% of the general public who are Democratic or Democratic-leaning.Just 11% describe themselves as Republican or lean to the GOP compared with 36% of thegeneral public. About a quarter (26%) are unaffiliated or express no partisan leanings. The vastmajority of Muslim Americans who voted in the 2004 presidential election say they supportedDemocrat John Kerry (71%); just 14% voted for President Bush.Religious BeliefsMuslims in the United States have distinctivereligious beliefs and practices. Yet their overallapproach to religion is not all that different from theway that U.S. Christians approach their faith.Comparable numbers of Christians and Muslimsin the United States say they attend religious services atleast once a week (45% and 40%, respectively).Somewhat more Christians than Muslims say they prayevery day, while more Muslims than Christians sayreligion is “very important” in their lives.Notably, Muslims in the United States – likeother Americans – are divided about the appropriateAmerican Muslims & ChristiansU.S. U.S.Muslims Christians% %Religion is “veryimportant” in your life 72 60Pray every day 61 70Attend mosque/churchat least once a week 40 45Mosques/churchesshould express views onpolitical & social issues 43 54Christian comparisons taken from thefollowing Pew nationwide surveys,respectively: May 2006, August 2005, Jan-Apr2007, July 2006role for religion in the nation’s political life. About half of Muslim Americans (49%) saymosques should keep out of political matters, while 43% believe that mosques should expresstheir views on social and political questions. In a Pew survey in 2006, 54% of Christians saidchurches and other houses of worship should express their political and social views, while 43%disagreed.8 MUSLIM AMERICANS
CHAPTER 1How Many Muslims Are There in the United States?Amajor challenge in describing the Muslim American population is estimating its size.Incomplete data and inadequate tools make it difficult to produce reliable estimates ofthe U.S. Muslim population. The result is a range of different estimates based ondifferent methodologies that use very different data.Scholars and Muslim American advocacy groups agree that currently there is noscientific count of Muslims in the United States. As the New York Times World Almanaccautioned in 2000, all estimates of the U.S. Muslim population should be read as “educatedapproximations, at best.”Against this backdrop, the Pew Research Center developed a survey-based study designthat effectively collected a nationwide representative sample of Muslim Americans that coverseach of the three sources of the U.S. Muslim population: Muslim immigrants, U.S.-bornMuslims, and converts to Islam. In the course of addressing the challenges of reaching this smallbut diverse population, the Pew study provides reliable data that may be helpful to futureresearchers.Some of these techniques were straightforward: Survey questions were translated intoArabic, Farsi and Urdu, and native speakers were employed as interviewers to administer thesurvey to respondents with limited English language skills. Overall, 17% of those interviewedwere questioned in a language other than English. The survey also measured the religiouspreference of all respondents born outside the United States, whether they were Muslim or not.This produced, for the first time, an empirical estimate of the percentage of immigrants who areMuslim or members of other religions. This estimate can prove useful to future researchers whouse immigration and country-of-origin data to estimate the total U.S. Muslim population. Muslimrespondents also were asked if they converted from another religion, and, if so, which one. Thesedata also provide, for the first time, a scientifically-derived estimate of the true proportion ofimmigrants, native-born and converts.The Pew Muslim American study estimates that Muslims constitute 0.6% of the U.S.adult population. This projects to 1.4 million Muslims 18 years old or older currently living inthe United States. The survey was conducted solely over landline telephones. There was nopractical way in this study to reach individuals who only have cell phones, or have no telephoneservice – an estimated 13.5% of the general public. The 1.4 million projection assumes that theproportion of Muslims who are cell-only or have no phone service is no different from the9 MUSLIM AMERICANS
Page 2 and 3: About the CenterThe Pew Research Ce
Page 5: MUSLIM AMERICANS:MIDDLE CLASS AND M
Page 10 and 11: These are the principal findings of
Page 12 and 13: justified.Views about terrorism are
Page 16 and 17: population overall. However, as a y
Page 18 and 19: 1972 to more than 2,000 randomly sa
Page 20 and 21: Muslim population as it is to estim
Page 22 and 23: The reasons for immigrating are hig
Page 24 and 25: Within specific ethnic heritages, 6
Page 26 and 27: difference in the overall rate of e
Page 28 and 29: Not surprisingly, religious affilia
Page 30 and 31: Religious PracticesMuslims in the U
Page 32 and 33: (21% high commitment). Muslim immig
Page 34 and 35: 28 MUSLIM AMERICANS
Page 36 and 37: pretty happy. Among Muslims ages 30
Page 38 and 39: themselves as Muslims first. About
Page 40 and 41: more religious say that is a good t
Page 42 and 43: Biggest Problems - Discrimination,
Page 44 and 45: To place these findings in context,
Page 48 and 49: On the question of mixing religion
Page 50 and 51: Role of GovernmentBy more than thre
Page 52 and 53: The view that government should bei
Page 56 and 57: in Iraq was the wrong decision. By
Page 58 and 59: Views on this question also are lin
Page 60 and 61: Muslims who are 30 or older, bycont
Page 62 and 63: Native-born and foreign-born Muslim
Page 64 and 65:
Muslims - was excluded. A dispropor
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interviews from the list stratum an
Page 68 and 69:
2. Questionnaire DesignThe principa
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short screener interview prior to a
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To compensate respondents for their
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espondents and weights was used to
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the true variability in the estimat
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APPENDIXSAMPLE DISPOSITION REPORTSR
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RE-CONTACT SAMPLE DISPOSITION REPOR
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Q.3 CONTINUED… 4-07---------GP---
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Q.B2 CONTINUED…e. 4-07GPThe gover
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Q.D2How many of your close friends
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Q.D9 On the whole, do you think tha
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Q.E2And outside of salah (sal-AH) a
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Q.E8In your opinion, should mosques
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Q.E13 Have you always been a Muslim
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Q.G2Do you think that the Islamic r
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ASK ALL:Q.H4 Do you think the U.S.-
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EDUCWhat is the last grade or class
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IF BORN IN U.S. (BIRTH=1), ASK :FAT
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INC1 Last year, that is in 2006, wa
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ASK ALL:IDEOIn general, would you d
Page 108:
ASK ALL:Q.Z5 Including yourself, ho
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