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Saturday, December 26th, 2015

Which Voters Tend to be More Islamophobic? New National Poll Exposes Massive Party Divide

Author:     Steven Rosenfeld
Source:     Alternet (U.S.)
Publication Date:     December 24, 2015
 Link: Which Voters Tend to be More Islamophobic? New National Poll Exposes Massive Party Divide
Stephan:   I am not surprised at the rise of Islamophobia, given the relentless corporate media machine's endless hate and fear campaign, particularly the echo chamber of the right. This is how the Japanese internment camps were justified. This is how racism works. Nor am I surprised that the racist White theocratic fantasy cult that has become the Republican Party is more Islamophobic than the rest of American society, as this report describes. What does surprise and dismay me is that the leading Republican Presidential candidates do not see the geopolitical disaster that must follow if we as a country alienate 1.6 Muslims, 23% of the human race.   The United States vs the Muslims. You really think that's a good idea? Certainly it is very profitable for the small group of corporations that live on war. But it is the antipod to policies creating wellness. And as for being killed by a terrorist: You are more likely to be struck by lightning, and much more likely to be killed by a gun fired by another American, than you are to be killed by a Muslim terrorist.  
Credit: Shutterstock/ A. Katz

Credit: Shutterstock/ A. Katz

Democrats and Americans under age 35 are much more open to accepting Syrian war refugees and are much less Islamphobic than Republicans and older Americans, a new national poll finds, underscoring the country’s fear-based partisan divides.

Seventy-four percent of Democrats would accept Syrian refugees, while 82 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of independent voters 51 would not, a Quinnipiac University poll reported this week. Similarly, 79 percent of Democrats reject Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s proposal to ban all foreign Muslims from entering the country, while 51 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of independent voters support it. Tellingly, 84 percent of people under age 35 also reject Trump’s ban.

Partisan differences on Islam and Muslims are not new, as other national pollsters like Pew Research Center found. However, what’s striking about the Quinnipiac results is that along with Republicans’ widespread distrust of Muslims and stated fears of Islamic fundamentalists leading terrorist attacks in America, Republicans are much more willing to go to war with ground troops in the Middle East […]

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1 Comment

  1. Steve Hovland on Saturday, December 26, 2015 at 4:44 am

    Like it or not, it appears we have reached a turning point. There’s a difference between religious tolerance and weakness in the face of people who would do us harm.