Blue Collar Muse

It’s received little publicity - I heard about it on talk radio - but the survey released 5/22 by the Pew Research Center needs to be read by every American.

Titled ‘Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream’ its 108 pages and 8 chapters cover topics such as ‘How many Muslims are there in the US’; what constitutes their ‘Religious Belief and Practice’; what are their ‘Political and Social Values’ and a variety of topics under the heading ‘The Muslim Experience’. Overall, the study shows Muslims in a pretty positive light. There are only a few surprises and Muslims seem, at first blush, just one among many of the groups that make up our Melting Pot nation.

There are, however, some very disturbing statistics listed here. These are the aforementioned surprises. Given that our nation, and the rest of the world’s nations, find ourselves at odds at best and at war at worst, with Islam, these disturbing statistics need to be paid attention to both for what they say and for what they do not say. It would not be too strong to say that our lives may depend on it.

Of the Muslims here in the US, 65% are foreign born and 35% are native born. Of the 65% born outside the US, 39% arrived here from 1990 on and 26% before 1990. Of the 35% native born, 20% are African American and 21% are converts to Islam. The study concludes there are 6-7 million Muslims currently living in the US. The survey is based on interviews with 1050 respondents and $50 incentive was paid for a completed interview. Each interview took about 30 minutes.

The Mainstream, Middle Class values that most of us hold seem to hold pretty true for the Muslim community. 71% believe one can get ahead in the US with hard work and 72% rate their community as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’. 59% believe Muslims coming to the US should either adopt American customs (43%) or practice both American and Muslim customs (16%).

Having said that, the disturbing stats begin to crop up.

It begins with 54% being dissatisfied with the state of the US and 53% thinking of themselves as Muslims first and Americans second. 38% believe that life is better for women in Muslim countries than here in the US and only 49% identified themselves as “very concerned about Islamic extremism in the world these days”. 53% say it is more difficult to be a Muslim in the US after 9/11 and 54% believe the government singles out Muslims for extra surveillance.

Speaking of the War on Terror, only 12% believe the War in Iraq is the right decision and 35% believe the same for Afghanistan. Overall 55% believe the US War on Terror is not a sincere effort. These compare to the general public percentages which stand at 45%, 61% and 67% respectively for the same questions. It is also at this point that a very interesting stat begins to pop up. Previously, the number of Muslims answering Don’t Know/No Response was relatively low and pretty much in line with the general public. At this point, those responses begin to diverge. For these three questions DK/NR was 13%, 17% and 19% with the general public responded DK/NR at 8%, 10% and 8%.

On the topic of Islamic extremism, 61% were Very/Somewhat concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism in the US with 5% DK/NR, 8% believed that suicide bombing can Usually/Sometimes be justified with 9% DK/NR; 5% have a Favorable view of Al-Qaida with 27% DK/NR and 28% do NOT believe that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks with 32% DK/NR. These stats, in my opinion, are stunning coming from a group of people that live, work and worship among us. The numbers are quite different based on the age of the respondent. 15% of 18-29 year olds believed suicide bombings are justifiable with 5% DK/NR vs 6% of 30+ year olds with 9% DK/NR. &% of 18-29 year olds had a favorable view of Al-Qaida with 19% DK/NR while 4% of 30+ year olds viewed Al-Qaida favorably with a 29% DK/NR response.

Muslims overwhelmingly identify themselves as Democrats and adopt values more in line with the Left than the Right. 63% either lean to the Democrat Party or are Democrats; 71% voted for Kerry and 69% Disapprove of Bush’s performance. 70% prefer bigger government; 73% believe the government should do more to aid the poor and 59% believe the government should do more in the area of morality.

Regarding their view of the Koran, 33% said there was only one true way to interpret the teachings of Islam. Of these 92% said it was the word of God and 66% of these said it should be taken literally. Of the 60% that said there were more than one way to interpret the teachings of Islam, 82% said it was the word of God and 45% of them said it should be taken literally. When one considers some of the quotes from the Koran concerning the treatment of women, infidels and unbelievers, that is a frightening statistic.

As the debate on Immigration rages in our country, one of the key questions being addressed is, “Are the people we are talking about intending to be a part of American society and the American experience or are they just here for what benefits them with little thought of giving back to the country they’re taking from?” For me, the same question needs to be applied to the Muslim community. Much is made of Islam’s plans for world domination. Clearly, Islam is pursuing that goal. The question has always been, “To what extent do Muslims in America approve of and participate in that pursuit?” The question is generally asked, “Where are the moderate Muslims?” and a related question, “If it’s the Islamic extremists that are making all the noise, where are the moderate Muslims objecting to the hijacking of their religion by extremists?”.

One final note, Islam teaches it is acceptable to lie to infidels in order to maintain a period of peace and coexistence during which Muslims may prepare for an assault on another group or culture. That reality must be factored in to the discussion. In this post, as in my most popular post to date, ‘Islam is Unconstitutional’, I am not offering solutions. Indeed, I’m not even offering firm conclusions. Not least because it is terrible for me to consider the Muslims around me each and every day may be some sort of 5th column waiting for God alone knows what trigger to reveal their true nature. Here in America, we simply don’t live our lives like that nor do we want to begin to do so.

Unfortunately, if the results of this survey are even close to accurate, we could be harboring in our midst literally thousands of people willing to take up a violent struggle against all we hold dear. That not all Muslims would join in only means we would face a domestic situation identical to the one our military faces in Iraq and Afghanistan - it will be difficult if not impossible to easily identify our enemy.

Perhaps the American Muslim community will consider these things as they decide how and when to respond to the question that will only get asked more frequently, “Are you with us or against us?”

Hoping the outcome will be pleasant but starting to wonder when I should start planning for a less than pleasant turn of events …

Blue Collar Muse

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, A Blog For All, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, the so called me, The Pet Haven Blog, Webloggin, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Colloquium, The Florida Masochist, Conservative Cat, third world county, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Planck’s Constant, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Geopolitics, Immigration, Individual Responsibility, Muslim, Politics, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.