Poll: Nearly half of all Americans support restricting rights of Muslim-Americans

WLBT ^ | December 17, 2004 | AP

[yonif]

ITHACA, N.Y. A nationwide poll finds nearly half of all Americans believe the U-S government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans.

The survey -- conducted this fall by Cornell University -- found that 44 percent favored at least some restrictions, while 48 percent said civil liberties shouldn't be restricted in any way.

Twenty-seven percent of the 715 respondents supported requiring all Muslim-Americans to register where they lived -- and 29 percent thought agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer groups.

The poll also found Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more likely to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

The executive director of the Muslim American Society says the news is disturbing, but not surprising.

[coffee260]

This is bunk. This is the start of the racist Christian drum beat. We are now going to be labeled ismalophobic Christian wackos...

[G32]

After the nukes start going off, I bet you'll change that attitude real quick..

[Drango]

Good thing we go by the constitution and not public opinion polls.

Or the opinions of some FReepers, who have seemed to let their hatred of terrorism morph into bigotry.

[muawiyah]

There's a big difference between "can be" and "will be". It's not likely the rights of Catholics and SDAs wil be restricted no matter what happens to Moslems.

Part of the problem here is that Islam is such an antogonistic and legalistic religion that the only thing I can think of that would be comprable (although highly improbable) would be for the SDA to borrow a trick from the Catholics and run a religiously legalistic inquisition.

Obviously the Catholics and SDA are "OK" and should not be bothered.

[MisterRepublican]

"The poll also found Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more likely to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious."

This also makes me suspect this story is political. You know how the "right-wing" wants to take away all your "civil liberties".

[honest2God]

What nukes?

[Publius6961]

I would love to see the way the questions were phrased</i>. My sense, seeing input from all across the country, is that the figure is much closer to 80% ---- once you separate the "civil rights" of citizens and legal residents from that of illegal aliens.

[Slump Tester]

"If the civil liberties of Muslim Americans can be restricted, then the civil liberties of Catholics, Jews, Mormons and 7th day Adventists can be restricted. No thanks."

So how about the mooslimes that aren't "American"?

Why even let any more in? Don't we have enough of them here yet? When they breed, their offspring can cancel my vote.

No thanks.

[G32]

uh, the ones that are surely to hit us in the coming years by islamics.

[NRA2BFree]

The poll also found Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more likely to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

That's because Republicans are more intelligent than the RATS are.

I don't think we need to be restricting their liberties, I think we need to deport them, and NEVER allow any more to come to America!!! That may sound harsh, but so what. ALL of the terrorists have been Muslims!!! THEY need to renounce their cult of death (Islam) and THEN maybe, just maybe I would reconsider.

[Publius6961]

Define "muslim-Americans".

[wizardoz]

....and 29 percent thought agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer groups.

And this is curtailing their civil liberties how?

[Emmett McCarthy]

I agree. We also know that the muslims are using their mosques as hiding places, sanctuaries and weapons dumps over in Iraq so I don't think it's unreasonable to think they may well be doing the same thing here in the U.S. I favor infiltrating their mosques and "civic organizations". I think a fair number of middle easterners in this country also favor close monitoring of people who may be America's enemies. I have an Iranian friend who says he expects - and wants - to be closely screened at airports because it is part of protecting his American wife and child.

[Flux Capacitor]

----The executive director of the Muslim American Society says the news is disturbing, but not surprising.----

I'd honestly like to know whether the Muslim American Society has spoken up to condemn the beheadings and suicide bombings.

Too many Muslims haven't. We didn't hear a whole hell of a lot from Muslim religious leaders in America following the butchering of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg. As a matter of fact, we didn't hear much from them following 9/11 itself. CAIR, probably the biggest and best-known Muslim "civil rights" organization, is little more than a terrorist front group. Overall, the silence from American Muslims has been deafening.

There are a great many Muslims who do not translate their faith into endorsements of violence. I do not believe they are the majority. Like the everyday Germans in the 1930s, they have failed to speak up or fight back against the radicals, and so the radicals have come to define Islam. And more and more people are coming to understand this. And so here we are, debating whether and by how much the civil liberties of ordinary Muslims should be curtailed -- and it isn't an unreasonable argument at all. And that's sad.

-Dan

[muawiyah]

Hey, regarding "bigotry", the problem is Islamic bigotry. Everybody else is involved in nothing more than self-defense.

Have you ever examined that religion? It's exceedingly doctrinaire and legalistic. There's no room for human intervention or interpretation. This leads to horrible outcomes. For example, when they invaded India they had no "out" for the Hindus they encountered. Consequently they could never make peace and stop the violence. That continued the war for hundreds of years beyond any rational point.

The problem wasn't with the Hindus ~ it was with Islam itself.

[Drango]

ALL of the terrorists have been Muslims!!!

Timothy McVey and Terry Nichols weren't.

[BobL]

"I have Muslim friends and they are perfectly normal."

People said the same thing in France and Holland. The local Muslims, the ones born there, were doing just fine. No problems. Then about 10 years ago, the head scarfs and the beards started showing up. Then the radical clerics. Now the terrorism.

The bottom line, they are ticking time bombs.

[sitetest]

"Twenty-seven percent of the 715 respondents supported requiring all Muslim-Americans to register where they lived..."

This would be an odious practice.

However, it appears that 73% of folks don't think this is such a great idea.

That's heartening.

[papertyger]

The poll also found Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more likely to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

Hardly surprising when the term "civil liberties" remains undefined by the pollster, while democrats and less religious bastardize the term in their campaign for racial preference, homosexual desensitzation, and subsidized infanticide.

[Charlespg]

Islam is not a religion. I have no problem restricting the rights of the followers of a murder cult like Islam