Friday, May 25, 2007

"Muslim Americans: Middle-Class and Mostly Mainstream" -- Pew Survey

Article -- though I tried to find an article/summary that didn't focus primarily on politics/suicide bombings, I couldn't. The survey's really a fascinating read, especially if you ARE an American Muslim.

I really wanted a greater breakdown of the results (though I suppose that could come in after the 15 pages i read) based on:
-- gender
-- income
-- race

Full Survey here.

I've only read the first 15-ish pages, but major themes that stood out:

-- American Muslims in general are concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism, both in the US and the world. [side note: Count me in].
-- "With the exception of very recent immigrants, most report that a large proportion of their closest friends are non-Muslims." [side note: LCHS hollaaa] "On balance, they believe that Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs, rather than trying to remain distinct from the larger society. And by nearly two-to-one (63%-32%) Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society."
-- younger Muslims are more likely to consider themselves very religious than old Muslims [side note: i can easily buy into this. Younger Muslims raised in a non-Muslim country are less likely to take their religion granted. When they're constantly fighting the status quo of the society they live in, they 1. feel the need to hold more strongly to their beliefs and 2. educate themselves on what they truly think is right. What I'd like to know, however, is how big of a role 9/11 played in how 'religious' one feels they have become].
-- the younger AND more religious muslims are both more likely to believe that 9/11 was not carried out by arabs. Younger Muslims are also more likely to believe suicide bombings targeting civilians can sometimes or rarely be justified [side note: where is this opinion brewing from??? what is the religious educational background of those who consider themselves religious?]
-- side note: I'd love to see the standards by which everyone defines varying levels of religiousness, how it differs between individuals and how they view themselves based on such differences.
-- the vast majority of young Muslims in the US seem to be first generation ("roughly two-thirds (65%) of adult Muslims living in the United States were born elsewhere, and 39% have come to the U.S. since 1990")
-- "Muslims in the US reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries" ; they also happen to generally have fewer instances of poverty.
-- while a greater percentage of muslims than christians feel that religion plays an important role in their life (72% vs 60%), fewer say they pray every day (61% vs 70%)
-- a smaller percentage of Muslims attend mosque once a week than Christians attend church (40% vs 45%, respectively [side note: why? is it because of the Muslims' deluded self image? Or because of a serious discontent with the masjid? Or because they don't feel the need to connect to the Muslim community throught the masjid? Or because the weekly mosque visit is typically on Fridays (a work day) as opposed to Sunday? Does this number change based upon gender?]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, there is a broken link in this article, under the anchor text - Full Survey here
Here is the working link so you can replace it - https://selectra.co.uk/sites/selectra.co.uk/files/pdf/pew-muslim-americans.pdf