Jews are the “least Islamophobic” religious group in the US, according to a new survey on anti-Muslim hatred.
According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, (ISPSU) Jews are the least Islamophobic mainstream religion in America, scoring just 17 points out of 100 on their sixth annual Islamophobia index.
The Index, which was the result of telephone and online surveys of thousands of Americans, found that Jews were less Islamophobic than Christians, the general population or even Muslim Americans themselves.
The Washington DC-based research organisation found that American Muslims scored 26 out of 100 on the Index, an uptick of 8 points from their score of 18 in the inaugural 2018 study.
The ISPU said the index was constructed to measure the “endorsement of anti-Muslim stereotypes” such as violence against other Americans and misogyny, which they argue “predict public support for discriminatory policies toward Muslims.”
They also described the endorsement of “negative stereotypes about one’s own community “ as “internalised oppression”, while highlighting the higher rate of “Islamophobia” among Muslims “who have lived the majority of their lives after 9/11”.
The findings claimed that White Evangelicals had the highest levels of Islamophobia of any religious group in the US, giving them an overall score of 30, just ahead of Catholics on 28 points.
Various streams of Christianity represent over 70 per cent of US adults. Judaism is the second largest religion in the US, with just under 2 per cent of Americans identifying as Jewish, double the 0.9 per cent of US adults who are Muslim.
When asked whether they agreed or disagreed that most Muslims living in the US are more prone to violence than others, 9 per cent of Jewish respondents said they agreed, while 81 per cent disagreed.
Similarly, when quizzed over whether most US Muslims “discriminate against women”, 57 per cent of Jews said they disagreed, compared to 69 per cent of Muslims and 45 per cent of the general public.
Views on whether “most Muslims living in the US are hostile to the US,” were also measured by the index. A larger proportion of American Muslims (19 per cent) agreed with this view, compared to just 4 per cent of American Jews.
ISPU’s Muslim Poll marks the organisation's sixth annual survey examining Muslims, Jews, and the general US population.
Aside from results on Islamophobia, polling also revealed that American Muslims are more likely to attend religious services, more likely than all other groups to express optimism about the direction of the country and are the most religiously observant mainstream religious group in the US.
The 2022 research took place in February and March this year, with 807 Muslims, 351 Jews, and 1,001 other adult respondents being surveyed over phone and the internet.
