Anti-Muslim Discrimination Is Rising, Most Americans Say

A majority of the public say U.S. Muslims face "a lot" of discrimination.
Lynne Sprague, left, Jeremy Bermudez, middle, and Andy Coco, right, who are part of the LGBTQ community, show their support for Muslims on June 12, 2016, in Denver.
Lynne Sprague, left, Jeremy Bermudez, middle, and Andy Coco, right, who are part of the LGBTQ community, show their support for Muslims on June 12, 2016, in Denver.
Helen H. Richardson via Getty Images

Seventy percent of Americans believe that discrimination against Muslims in the nation is increasing, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in the wake of the Orlando shooting.

Fifty-four percent of Americans say that Muslims currently face "a lot" of discrimination, little changed from a survey last March in which 55 percent said the same.

Americans' own views of Islam remain generally negative. Fifty-eight percent report an unfavorable view of Islam, unchanged since last December, while just 25 percent say they have a favorable view.

Opinions are deeply divided along partisan lines.

Republicans are both more than three times likelier than Democrats to hold strongly unfavorable views of Islam and more than twice as likely to say there's not a lot of discrimination against those who practice the faith.

Fifty-one percent of Republicans, but just 22 percent of Democrats, say that Muslims are more likely than other American citizens to have sympathy for terrorists.

The HuffPost/YouGov survey finds that 46 percent of Americans agree with Donald Trump's call last year for a "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on," while an equal 46 percent oppose it.

But polling on the issue has varied widely across surveys, depending both on the phrasing of the question and the methodology used. One recent poll from NBC and SurveyMonkey found slightly higher support for a ban on Muslims traveling to the U.S., while a CBS New survey found widespread opposition.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted June 15 through June 17 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls.You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.

Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.

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