About the CenterThe Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudesand trends shaping America and the world. It does so by conducting public opinion polling and socialscience research; by reporting news and analyzing news coverage; and by holding forums and briefings. Itdoes not take positions on policy issues.The Muslim American study was funded by a generous grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and wasconducted jointly by two of the Pew Research Center’s projects: The Pew Research Center for the People& the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, with additional advice and assistance fromstaff in the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Global Attitudes Project.Pew Research CenterAndrew Kohut PresidentPaul Taylor Executive Vice PresidentElizabeth Mueller Gross Vice PresidentScott Keeter Director of Survey ResearchRichard Morin Senior EditorVidya Krishnamurthy Communications ManagerPew Research Center for the People & the PressAndrew Kohut DirectorCarroll Doherty Associate Director, EditorialMichael Dimock Associate Director, ResearchRichard Wike Senior ResearcherNilanthi Samaranayake Survey and Data ManagerJuliana Horowitz, Rob Suls, Shawn Neidorf Research AssociatesJames Albrittain Executive AssistantPew Forum on Religion & Public LifeLuis Lugo DirectorSandra Stencel Deputy DirectorJohn C. Green Senior Fellow in Religion & American PoliticsGregory Smith Research FellowDaniel A. Cox Research AssociateSahar Chaudhry Program Assistantwww.pewresearch.orgCopyright © 2007 Pew Research Center
FOREWORDMuslims constitute a growing and increasingly important segment of American society.Yet there is surprisingly little quantitative research about the attitudes and opinions of thissegment of the public for two reasons. First, the U.S. Census is forbidden by law from askingquestions about religious belief and affiliation, and, as a result, we know very little about thebasic demographic characteristics of Muslim Americans. Second, Muslim Americans comprisesuch a small percentage of the U.S. population that general population surveys do not interview asufficient number of them to allow for meaningful analysis.This Pew Research Center study is therefore the first ever nationwide survey to attempt tomeasure rigorously the demographics, attitudes and experiences of Muslim Americans. It buildson surveys conducted in 2006 by the Pew Global Attitudes Project of Muslim minority publics inGreat Britain, France, Germany and Spain. The Muslim American survey also follows on Pew’sglobal surveys conducted over the past five years with more than 30,000 Muslims in 22 nationsaround the world since 2002.The methodological approach employed was the most comprehensive ever used to studyMuslim Americans. Nearly 60,000 respondents were interviewed to find a representative sampleof Muslims. Interviews were conducted in Arabic, Urdu and Farsi, as well as English. Subsamplesof the national poll were large enough to explore how various subgroups of thepopulation -- including recent immigrants, native-born converts, and selected ethnic groupsincluding those of Arab, Pakistani, and African American heritage -- differ in their attitudesThe survey also contrasts the views of the Muslim population as a whole with those ofthe U.S. general population, and with the attitudes of Muslims all around the world, includingWestern Europe. Finally, findings from the survey make important contributions to the debateover the total size of the Muslim American population.The survey is a collaborative effort of a number of Pew Research Center projects,including the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the Pew Forum on Religion &Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center. The project was overseen by Pew Research CenterPresident Andrew Kohut and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life Director Luis Lugo. ThePew Research Center’s Director of Survey Research, Scott Keeter, served as project director forthe study, with the close assistance of Gregory Smith, Research Fellow at the Pew Forum. Manyother Pew researchers participated in the design, execution and analysis of the survey.Pew researchers sought the counsel of outside experts in the conceptualization anddevelopment of the survey project. Amaney Jamal, assistant professor in the Department of
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The view that government should bei
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48 MUSLIM AMERICANS
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in Iraq was the wrong decision. By
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Views on this question also are lin
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Muslims who are 30 or older, bycont
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Native-born and foreign-born Muslim
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Muslims - was excluded. A dispropor
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interviews from the list stratum an
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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
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ASK ALL:Q.Z5 Including yourself, ho
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