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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