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CheebaMonkey

Survey finds support for restricting Muslim-Americans' freedoms
Newsday.com | 12/17/2004

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Nearly one in two Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict civil liberties for Muslim-Americans, according to a nationwide Cornell University poll on terrorism fears.

[CheebaMonkey: 44% of the Americans polled supported unfair discrimination towards Muslim-Americans. I find that disturbing.]

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

[CheebaMonkey: Good ol' hyper Christians.]

Curtailing civil liberties for Muslim-Americans also was supported more by Republicans than Democrats, the survey found. The amount of attention paid to TV news also had a bearing on how strongly a respondent favored restrictions.

"The more attention paid to television news, the more you fear terrorism, and you are more likely to favor restrictions on civil liberties," 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," Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Virginia-based Muslim American Society, said of the survey results.

"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," Bray said.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, meanwhile, responded by calling on the nation'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.

Cornell student researchers 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.

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

According to the survey, 37 percent believe a terrorist attack in the United States is still likely within the next 12 months. In a similar poll conducted by Cornell in November 2002, that number stood at 90 percent.

The survey also found that when asked about the reason for the U.S. 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," Shanahan said. "The tough stance on civil liberties appears to be a bleed-over effect."

The Cornell survey found 44 percent favored at least some restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent said liberties should not be restricted in any way.

[CheebaMonkey: Fortunately, some people still have some common sense left. I wonder why 8% of the people didn't give an answer though.]

The survey asked respondents about four specific restrictions, all of which have been seriously suggested, noted Shanahan.

Specifically, the survey found:

• 27 percent of respondents said all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government.
  
  
• 26 percent said mosques should be closely monitored by U.S. law enforcement agencies.
  
  
• 29 percent agreed undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and fund raising.
  
  
• 22 percent said the federal government should profile citizens as potential threats based on the fact they are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage.

[CheebaMonkey: I think that's totally abhorrent.]

The survey also examined the relation of religion to perceptions of Islam and Islamic countries and found the more religious a person described themselves, the more negative their views on Islam.

The amount of attention paid to TV news also had a bearing on how strongly a respondent favored restrictions.

"The more attention paid to television news, the more you fear terrorism, and you are more likely to favor restrictions on civil liberties," said Erik Nisbet, a senior research associate with Cornell's Survey Research Institute who helped design the survey.

[CheebaMonkey: For some reason, this is repeated twice in the article.]

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," Shanahan said.

Shanahan said researchers expected the correlation with party affiliation.

In each of the four instances, Republicans favored restrictions by an almost 2-to-1 margin over Democrats and Independents.

[CheebaMonkey: Not a proud day to be a Republican, IMO. Of course, I wonder if you could be proud any day at all. ]

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Higher Logic

To me this just clarifies why Bush won the election. The numbers are basically the same as those that voted for Bush verse Kerry, and it only reinforces my opinion on the majority of the people that voted for Bush. Keyword majority, there's always exceptions. However, the people that did vote for Bush based this entire election on one thing: the war on terrorism. They are probably the same people who also have this type of "support" for restricting Muslim-American's freedoms...

Hell I bet most Americans, or, the ones that are for this, don't even know that 83% of Muslims aren't even Arabic

I wonder what "news program" these people watched too...I can take a guess

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Mamabudz

...Can you say Facist mentality?

Zilos

What the hell? I'll say that again. What The Hell? I thought the world was past racism? Especially in the US!

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Buzzby

What I want to know is why they aren't picking on rednecks? Who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma city? Clue: it wasn't Arabs or Muslims.

White, rural, conservative, Christian Republicans need to root out the terrorists in their midst! Problem is, they're not so easy to identify as "other".

When is mankind going to grow beyond fighting over their imaginary friends?


"Racism" is just one "ism" among many that are a function of a basic human need to increase one's own importance by denigrating those who are different. Doesn't every national/religious/political/class group declare it's superiority? My delusion always has to be better than your delusion in order to justify my existence. Does it really surprise you that the more religious among us are also the more bigoted?

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Zilos

Im suprised, though I guess I shouldn't be.

People just don't seem to learn. Putting retrictions on a specific race or culture is only going to continue the hatrid towards the US. People, though relitively smart, can be soo stupid!

Higher Logic

I always thought that was ironic too, that we are fighting "terrorism" yet we aren't fighint extremist Christians. Last time I checked it was a lone wolf who blew up the OK Building...

Ignorance. What a horrible thing. I would call it stupidity actually, and yes, racism is well alive in the U.S., we're far from getting over it. ****, there's segregation still in the South for Christ's sake.

HappyMan

why are people not condeming similar polls of muslims that show an siginifcant hosility toward the U.S.? A large portion of the members of the 'muslim world' want the outright destruction of the U.S.

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Stephanie S.

Well, see, this is the United States of America and we have like, Freedom of Religion and stuff. This poll is suggesting taking away the rights this country was founded upon.

Do you know of a poll where it says that Muslim Americans want to restrict the rights of Christians?

peace

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CheebaMonkey

I do (and I'm sure the others in this thread) condemn those polls, HappyMan.

But those polls don't change anything about this one.