Returning for its fourth year, this month the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) released its American Muslim Poll 2019 (AMP). This poll surveys Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, white Evangelicals, and those that consider themselves non-affiliated to compare attitudes across religious groups. The poll offers evidence-based contributions to a landscape that saw Muslims increasingly discussed, but not included, in national debates. Since 2002, ISPU has been at the forefront of discovering trends and opportunities that impact the American Muslim community. It has assembled leading experts across multiple disciplines, building a solid reputation as a trusted source for information and for about American Muslims.
The ISPU announced its publication "American Muslim Poll 2019: Predicting and Preventing Islamophobia" during an event in the nation's capital on May 1, 2019. Hosted by NYU Brademas Center Events in Washington DC, ISPU Director of Research Dalia Mogahed presented the findings of the survey followed by a lively discussion with a respected panel of guests. This year’s survey also includes ISPU’s second Islamophobia Index, created in partnership with Georgetown’s Bridge Initiative. The Index measures how much the public endorses anti-Muslim tropes while it examines and teases out factors that predict and prevent Islamophobia.
Opening the discussion, Mehdi Hasan a prominent journalist at Al Jazeera English highlighted the importance of the survey not only for Muslims but for whole range of Christians, Jews and other minorities at a time where the future for those minorities looks dark and bleak because of what he described as an "era of hate." Mehdi mentioned that under President Trump's watch, hate has been mainstreamed, normalized, escalated, legitimized and amplified. As an example of this trend, Mehdi referred to the new elected congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a hijab-wearing former refugee who had been demonized and smeared in the most racist, Islamophobic ways and "her life is in a genuine danger because of that" he said. He also emphasized that hate crimes rose by 37%, the third consecutive year these crimes have increased based on FBI reports while the number of assaults against Muslims is higher now than it was during 9/11 attacks in 2001. Mehdi finished his presentation by asserting that we all need to stand together against hate and bigotry but we have to do it armed with the best information and the best facts and figures of what's going on in our communities.
ISPU Director of Research Dalia Mogahed presented the findings of the survey and explained ISPU's methodology in collecting data from different members of communities from across the country. After that, she turned to present the key findings of the survey where she mentioned that Muslims are the least likely to approve of President but more likely to express optimism with the direction of the country. More importantly, Muslim voters registration is still lower than any faith groups the survey has measured and that income, age, mosque attendance, and local political engagement are the strongest predictors of voter participation among Muslims. She also emphasized that there are factors that can help eliminate or lower Islamophobia such as knowing a Muslim, knowing Islamic faith and positive views of other minorities groups, these factors are all linked in lowering islamophobia. At the end of her presentation, Dalia concluded that partisanship is another powerful factor to lower islamophobia, however, she asserted that knowing Islamic faith is a stronger predictor of lowering islamophobia than knowing a Muslim.
Dalia's presentation was followed by a discussion of a distinguished panel of experts from different communities and faiths and moderated by Mehdi Hasan. The panel consisted of four panelists, John Esposito, Professor of Religion & International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University; Walter Ruby, Chairman of the Greater Washington Muslim-Jewish Forum; Dalia Mogahed, ISPU Director of Research; and Ibram Kendi, Professor and Director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University. Panelists shared their views about the phenomenon of Islamophobia and the challenges that those minorities are facing inside their communities and the United States in general.
Walter Ruby, Chairman of the Greater Washington Muslim-Jewish Forum, said about the California synagogue attack that for the first time he does not feel safe in America. However, this feeling extends to other minorities that no one is safe, thus, we need an alliance between all these communities in order to face these attacks in the future, he said.
Answering another question about how ignorant Americans are about the basics of Islam and what can be done to fix the problem, John Esposito argued that in terms of getting people to understand Islam better it is not enough to develop a program to train teachers but we need a program that trains the trainers.
Answering a question posed by this reporter about how we can put the white supremacist phenomenon at the center of the 2020 election campaign, Dalia Mogahed emphasized that we have to work with other impacted communities like Black Americans and Jewish Americans who are affected by the same threat of white supremacists which was emboldened and legitimized by the current administration.
After an hour and half of interactive dialogue and discussion, the experts concluded that whether it is Islamophobia, anti-Semitism or racism against black Americans the problem has reached record levels with the current administration nurturing those narratives. However, in order to face those common threats working together as minorities is the only way to raise awareness and pressure this administration to change its stance and policy toward these minorities.
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