What do Muslims, Jews, and Protestants Have in Common?
- By C Barnett --
- 17 Apr 2016 --
No, it’s not the beginning of a bad joke. Recent study shows priorities and concerns among Muslims, Jews and Protestants are relatively the same.
Muslims are up against quite a few Republican contenders who are competing on how stringent they will be on Islamic Terrorism if elected. Not only that, they are also demanding proper management as it relates to the issue of immigration. A new survey has revealed that Muslims living in the U.S. share the same views as their non-Muslim counterparts, pertaining to the American society and where it is heading.
What do Muslims, Jews, and Protestants Have in Common?[/tweetthis]
A survey was done on March 15 by a non-profit research group known as the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), which was founded by and comprised of physicians, business entrepreneurs and Muslim professionals in order to analyze issues within the Muslim community and its interrelation with the broader society.
According to Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research at ISPU, the Muslim community is “both pious and patriotic, optimistic and weary of discrimination, similar to Jews in its politics, and much like Protestants in its religious practice.”
Some of the main discoveries of the show that:
The economy is leading priority for the 2016 election.
While this is true for Jews, Democrats, African-Americans and Muslims alike, in the eyes of Protestants and Catholics it has fallen second to national security, while on the list of the other mentioned parties Islamophobia and education are second and third respectively.
Muslims are quite similar to Protestants.
In every four, ten among Muslims and Protestants, frequent religious meetings and went on to say that religion is a key part of their lives (87% for Muslims and 94% for Protestants). However, they both had a statistical tie as it relates to the subject of them having strong American identity and approximately 2 in every 10 Jews and 4 in every 10 Catholics Protestants and Muslims say attend religious meetings regularly.
Muslims lean towards the Democratic Party, just like Jews.
The survey revealed that 44% of Muslims and 44% of Jews vote Democratic. Their presidential choices are quite similar with Hillary Clinton leading with 40 and 33% of Muslim and Jewish votes respectively, with only 13% of Catholics and Protestants. On the other hand Donald Trump, who is now the biggest voice as it relates to ending Muslim immigration, holds only 4% of Muslim votes.
Just like their neighbors, Muslims wish to vote almost as much.
The survey has discovered that 85% of Muslims are intent on voting, but only 60% of that amount are registered voters which leaves a big gap of 25%.
There’s no link between frequency of mosque attendance and Muslim attitudes toward violence.
The report went on to add: “Muslim Americans who regularly attend mosques are more likely than those who do not frequent mosques to work with their neighbors to solve community problems.” Sixty-five per cent of the Muslim community has agreed that for the military to highlight and murder civilians is never justified. The number varies at 40 and 43% among Protestants and Catholics respectively. To go a bit further, roughly 8 of 10 persons in every faith group share the same views as the Muslims on this subject.
These results were collected and compiled via interviews done with 312 Jews, 515 Muslims and 1,021 persons taken from the general populous. The survey was by cellphone, web panel and landline from January 18th to 27th. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points for Catholics and Protestants, while it was 7 percentage points for Jews and Muslims.