WASHINGTON – A Gallup poll released Tuesday found that most Muslim Americans are very optimistic about their lives in the United States and are loyal to a country that’s given them a wealth of economic opportunities, even though some Americans continue to treat the community with hostility.
But the report also identified one area of concern: how to improve the strained relationship between Muslims and other Americans.
Experts said the survey findings were important because they could mitigate some of the concerns Americans have about the susceptibility of American Muslims to extremist causes. The thinking goes that if people are satisfied with their lives, they’re unlikely to get sucked into radical movements, which often prey on economically vulnerable people.
Asked to rate what their lives would be like in five years, Muslim Americans gave higher ratings than members of most other religious groups did. On a 1-to-10 scale, Muslims rated their future lives at 8.4, while Americans of other religious groups give average ratings of 7.4 to 8, Gallup pollsters said.
Mohamed Younis, a senior Gallup analyst, attributed Muslims’ positive outlook to a range of reasons, from political factors to the slowly recovering economy having improved their standard-of-living expectations.
Tags: american muslims, changed rhetoric, Mohamed Younis, standard of living, U.S. Poll
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