Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Study Paints Rare Portrait of Muslim-Americans
Study paints rare portrait of Muslim-Americans
By MIKE MOKRZYCKI
The Associated Press
Monday, March 2, 2009; 11:33 AM
-- Muslims in America have a much more positive outlook on life than their counterparts in most predominantly Muslim countries and some other Western societies, according to a poll released Monday.
The Gallup Organization study found Muslim-Americans to be racially and ideologically diverse, extremely religious, and younger and more highly educated than the typical American.
Gallup asked respondents to evaluate their life situation by placing themselves on a ladder where the bottom step, zero, equals the worst possible life and 10 the best possible life. Gallup defined as "thriving" those who said they're currently on at least step seven of that ladder and expect to be on step eight or higher about five years from now.
Muslim-Americans (41 percent) were slightly less likely than Americans overall (46 percent) to be thriving. Yet the proportion of Muslims thriving in the United States was among the highest of Western societies surveyed, Gallup found. For example, only 8 percent of Muslims in the United Kingdom and 23 percent in France were thriving.
One exception: 49 percent of Muslims were deemed thriving in Germany, which welcomed many immigrants from Turkey during labor shortages in the 1960s and 1970s.
In predominantly Muslim countries, only in Saudi Arabia were more Muslims _ 51 percent _ thriving than in America.
Gallup found only 11 percent of Muslims thriving in Indonesia and Pakistan, 13 percent in Egypt, in the high teens to 20 percent in Bangladesh, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and 24 percent in Morocco. Gallup found the proportion "suffering" _ answering 0 to 4 on both ladder questions _ ranging from 20 to 26 percent in Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon and as high as 33 percent in Jordan and 45 percent in Pakistan.
In short, Muslim Americans look more like other Americans in their life outlook than they resemble Muslims in most predominantly Muslim nations.
The Gallup study painted an uncommon portrait of Muslims in a U.S. and global context by combining interviews with 946 Muslims from polling of more than 300,000 Americans throughout 2008 and comparing them to Gallup surveys in more than 140 other countries. With Muslim-Americans probably making up only around 1 percent of the nation's population, few sound surveys have targeted the group, despite interest after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In an essay for the Gallup report, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. _ the first Muslim elected to Congress _ urged Muslim Americans to "step out of the shadows of your own world, and step forthrightly into a participatory America."
"For too long _ and particularly after 9/11 _ Muslims have withdrawn into their own mosque-defined communities, denying themselves their rightful place in the fabric of America," Ellison wrote. "'Being Muslim' shouldn't need to be explained, but rather be observed by how each of us lives our lives, and the values we espouse. However defined we are by our religion, we are equally defined by our nationalism; we are Americans."
Results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points for Muslim-Americans, 0.2 points for all Americans and varying ranges in other countries.
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On the Net:http://gallupmuslimstudies.com
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4 comments:
Regarding a Jihad for Love: I was seriously disgusted at the program, there is no room in Islam for homosexuality, Gay Muslims as they call themselves should be killed - no, upon considering this, they would ludicrously count this as martyrdom, they should be left to run naked in a field with a pack of cayotes (unfed for days) chasing at them, hunting them down, mutilating and devouring them in front of their families, for this is the punishment that is adequate for their liking. God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, so any men on men or women on women activity is a psychological illness that has been brought into existence through satanic influences and whispers and Parvez Sharma is going to die such a bad death, one that will startle those that dared to support him. Watch out paddy! every Devout Muslim from here to Azerbaijan will be hot on your trails trying to rid you from the face of this earth, we know what you look like so I guess thats a start. If ever I see you and your homo-herd in public I'm going to beat the shit out of you all, I'm going to tie a noose around your bits collectively, tie the other end to the tow bar of my car and drive off leaving you with out your pistols.
Anonymous, you're a dick. If you're gonna leave a hate-filled comment like this, have the balls to do it under your name, you dumb fuck piece of shit.
You don't want to have gay sex? Fine. Don't. But you've got zero right to threaten another human being based on his sexuality. I don't give a shit if you think it's against your religion. You don't have the fucking right to threaten someone like this.
You're the sick one here. Get some help and cut the macho bullshit.
Ahahahahaha he said "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve".
Anyone who says that phrase is automatically barred from the rights of adulthood and therefore being taken seriously in any way.
Also, who refers to penises as "pistols"? Is that how Anon thinks of himself, shooting his gun of righteousness every time he comes in a woman?
Ewww.
Now repeat after me: "Bismillah Irrahman Irahim" God is all mercy and compassion, and in the end God alone will judge. The Qur'an says nothing about loving relationships between men or between women, but it says plenty about acting on hatred and anger, making evil threats, and lashing out in violence.
Also psychologists have found over and over again that men who are really and truly heterosexual have no worries or fears about homosexuality. The men who do lash out with such idiotic threats are really scared of their own latent homosexual desires.
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