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Poll views US Muslim community like others

Muslims take part in prayer at the South Jersey Islamic Center in Palmyra, near Philadelphia. (Courtesy of NYTimes)

A new poll in the aftermath of the recent California shooting attack finds Americans view US Muslims just like other communities in the country.

Just days after two Muslims were accused of gunning down 14 people in California, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows 51 percent of Americans view Muslims living in the US the same as any other community.

Much of the division in the poll is partisan. Among Democrats, 60 percent said they view Muslims like any other community, compared with 30 percent of Republicans.

Republicans were more likely than Democrats to support closely monitoring mosques (64 percent compared with 43 percent) or closing ones with suspected extremist ties (69 percent to 48 percent).

Of the 1,056 likely voters across the nation polled online on Thursday and Friday, 34.7 percent said they are fearful of “a few groups and individuals” in the Muslim community. Only 14.6 percent said they were generally fearful of them.

49 percent said Muslims put religion above the law, compared with 33 percent who thought the same of Christians and 23 percents of Jews.

This is while American Muslims fear that a new wave of Islamophobia is spreading across the United States, fueled by this week’s mass shooting in California.

US Muslims and their prayer leaders across the country say they are experiencing a wave of death threats, assaults and vandalism unlike anything they have experienced since the September 11 attacks in 2001, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

All this follows a Wednesday shooting attack on a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, where two people by the names of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik killed at least 14 people and injured 21 others in the deadliest shooting in the US in three years. Hours later, the couple died in a fire exchange with police.


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