Survey: Muslim values at odds with U.S., Christians say

Experts see misperceptions about Islam

From white Protestants to Catholics, from Maine to Hawaii, a solid majority of American Christians believes Muslim values are at odds with American values and way of life, a national survey released Tuesday indicates.

In the Public Religion Research Institute poll, which seeks to elicit opinions on social, political, economic and religious issues, almost three of four white evangelical Protestants told researchers they believe Muslim values are out of sync with those of America.

More than 60 percent of white mainstream Protestants and Catholics agreed, as did 55 percent of African-American Protestants. Overall, the study found, 56 percent of Americans perceive an America nMuslim values divide — up from 47 percent in 2011 and 2014.

Only adherents of nonChristian religions — not differentiated by faiths — strongly affirmed a unity between Muslim and American values. Fiftyeight percent said they did not believe the value systems were in conflict.

Approximately seven in 10 of all of those interviewed said Muslims suffer “a lot” of discrimination in the United States.

The poll did not define American or Muslim values and offered little context.

Reviewing the findings, Robert Hunt, director of global theological education at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, said the study likely “read anxiety about Islam, not knowledge.”

Common ground

While American Christians may have knowledge of non-Christian religions’ beliefs and rituals, he said, “most of us really don’t know anything about other religions’ values, in particular, Islam’s.”

Shrill denunciations of Muslims have been common in the United States since the 1990s, he said, and many of those negative assertions have been repeated from evangelical pulpits.

“Basically, these presentations of Islamic values are biased and very incomplete, but they find support through the acts of a few radical Muslims,” he said.

Muslim and American values share much in common, Hunt said.

“Islam is capitalist in nature,” he said. “Islamic law protects private property more than most Western national laws. Islam is socially conservative. Muslims worldwide are opposed to abortion. They are heavy promoters of ‘family values.’ Those things don’t get publicized.”

Added Emran ElBadawi, University of Houston’s director of Arabic studies, “The Islamic education system, the legal system have influenced the systems we have today. We are heirs of Islamic tradition. Americans, in my opinion, are misinformed because of the political climate around us.”

Martin Cominsky, president and CEO of Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, said he found the new poll surprising and “a little discouraging.”

“Fear comes mainly from not understanding others,” he said. “Our country has experienced xenophobia at wartime points, and clearly we’re in a wartime mentality.”

Misperceptions

To an extent, he said, Muslims have failed to positively convey their values to the larger American society.

“They are people with good intentions without good resources. They get wrongly perceived by Christians, who say ‘they don’t apologize, they don’t act the way they should.’ They act the best way they know how, but they need to start embracing others. We need to start telling each other our stories or we’re going to continue to have polls with results like these.”

M.J. Kahn, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, said Houston-area Muslims have opened mosques to visitors and engaged in interfaith dialogues to build understanding. But, he acknowledged, effective trans-faith communication remains “one of our biggest challenges.”

Addressing one of the study’s most surprising findings, the large percentage of white evangelicals who see a disconnect between Muslim and American values, Cominsky and Baylor University professor Chris van Gorder suggested the phenomenon may stem from Protestants seeing in Islam a mirrorimage of themselves.

“Evangelical Protestants are loyal and committed to their faith,” Cominsky said. “I think they may believe Muslims have a similar evangelical spirit. They know how important religion is to them, and they fear people of a different religion who have that deep, abiding commitment to their faith.”

‘Spiritual warfare’

Christians, van Gorder said, see Jesus as “the one way to truth and light.”

“They see in Islam the same type of assertion they make,” he said. “They alone have the truth. ... There’s spiritual warfare between the two sides. Either you’re for Christ or you’re against him. There’s not much gray area, not a middle space. When they see (Christians) beheaded, that underscores the narrative.”

For El-Badawi, Christians with misgivings about Muslim values are, in part, victims of “corporate media” that “tells us of wars, terrorism, the kinds of things that question (Islamic) values and morals.”

“This is not surprising to me,” he said of the survey. “My American brothers are confused, and their television set is telling them that all Muslims need to take all responsibility for terrorism. They question what values Muslims hold and conclude those values must be fearsome. It was fed to them yesterday, after 9/11, and they see it on Fox TV news today.”

“They are people with good intentions without good resources. They get wrongly perceived by Christians, who say ‘they don’t apologize, they don’t act the way they should.’ They act the best way they know how, but they need to start embracing others. We need to start telling each other our stories or we’re going to continue to have polls with results like these.” Martin Cominsky, president and CEO, Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston