Wednesday, July 25, 2007

How Muslims Compare With Other Religious Americans

In Intensity of Religious Identity, Not Unlike Evangelicals

July 6, 2007
by Robert Ruby and Greg Smith, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Although Muslims constitute a small minority in the United States, and their holy book and many of their religious rituals are distinctly their own, Muslim Americans are by no means "the other" when it comes to religious life or politics in the United States. In many ways, they stand out not so much for their differences as for their similarities with other religious groups.

In their level of religious commitment, Muslim Americans most closely resemble white evangelicals and black Protestants. In their basic political orientation, they closely resemble black Protestants as well as seculars. When it comes to their views on some social issues, such as homosexuality, Muslims' conservatism matches that of white evangelicals. Muslims are even more likely than evangelicals or any other group to support a role for government in protecting morality.

Dive into the statistics.

Just wondering. Given that normal, run-of-the-mill, every day Muslims so closely resemble normal, run-of-the-mill, every day Christians, wouldn't it stand to reason that Fundamentalist, Islamofascist, extremist Muslims closely resemble rabid, Bible-thumping, Fundamentalist Christians as well?

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