Posted on 05/23/2019 7:27:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Muslims living in the United States are more likely to have a friend or family member who identifies as evangelical Christian than the other way around, according to a newly released survey.
The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding of New York released a study on Monday titled “Evangelical Christian and Muslim Relations in the U.S.,” which analyzed several points of comparison between the two faith communities.
According to the research, 38 percent of Muslim respondents reported having any family members or close friends who are evangelical and 53 percent reported interacting with evangelicals either “very frequently” or “somewhat frequently.”
By contrast, 18 percent of evangelical respondents reported having any family members or close friends who are Muslim and 22 percent reported interacting with Muslims either “very frequently” or “somewhat frequently.”
When asked to describe the relationship between evangelicals and Muslims in the United States, each faith group was more likely to rate it "fair" (37 percent of evangelicals, 31 percent of Muslims) than "poor" (24 percent of evangelicals, 26 percent of Muslims) or "good" (21 percent of evangelicals and Muslims). Only 5 percent of evangelicals and 9 percent of Muslims rated it “excellent.”
Data for the study was based off of an online survey conducted Jan. 3-15, with a sample space of 500 self-identified American evangelical Christians and 500 self-identified American Muslims, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.
The study showed some similarities between the two faith groups, as both evangelical and Muslim respondents ranked “Daily Prayer,” “Family,” and “Making the world a better place for everyone” in their top three most important aspects of their religious tradition.
Further, majorities of both evangelical (61 percent) and Muslim (59 percent) respondents reported praying more than once a day.
There were also telling disparities. For example, 56 percent of evangelical respondents voted for Donald Trump in 2016, while only 12 percent of Muslim respondents did the same.
Also, 61 percent of evangelicals either “strongly support” or “somewhat support” the Trump administration’s travel ban on Muslim-majority countries; by contrast, only 20 percent of Muslims reported the same.
“Evangelical Christian-Muslim relations is today’s largest interreligious challenge and the poll shows that there are causes for concern and elements of hope and optimism on both sides to narrow the divide between the two faith communities,” said FFEU President Rabbi Marc Schneier in a statement released Monday.
Earlier this year, evangelical and Muslim leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., for a symposium on “bridge building” between the two religious groups.
Organized by the Unity Productions Foundation, the Kingdom Mission Society, and the Vienna-based International Dialogue Centre, the event included a screening of a documentary about St. Francis of Assisi’s communication with Sultan Al-Kamil in the Middle Ages.
“I think when you see St. Francis and you see examples of missionaries in the Evangelical movement what you will often see is the spirit of Christ to reach everyone, because we believe everyone has human dignity,” stated Alexei Laushkin, executive director of the Kingdom Mission Society.
“Throughout the scriptures Old Testament and New Testament you see the prophets and you see Jesus encountering people as they are and we try and use that spirit as our means for dialogue and conversation.”
Probably because there are so many more Evangelicals in this nation than Muslims.
File this under... Duh! If I lived in a predominately Muslim country I would probably have a lot of Muslim acquaintances. My moving to a predominately Muslim country is, however, not likely.
Some of my most in depth and friendliest conversations on matters of faith and life have been with Muslims. Many of them are far closer to Jesus than they realize... God bless them as He leads them to the fullness of the Truth.
>> both evangelical and Muslim respondents ranked “Daily Prayer,” “Family,” and “Making the world a better place for everyone” in their top three most important aspects of their religious tradition. <<
I think our definition of “making the world a better place” might be a bit different.
Yeah, there just aren’t enough Muslims to go around.
I love these math-based studies. Maybe the next one will amaze us all by showing how 4 always follows 3 when we are counting things. ;-)
Sounds like a crock to me.
It’s a tough call.
I have Muslim acquaintances, we get along fine. Of course I don’t bring up certain topics.
But the problem is that it’s a numbers game, when their numbers are relatively small, they are fine. But once they hit a certain percentage of the population, the dynamic completely changes. And even those who wouldn’t otherwise become antagonistic, fall to the pressure to conform.
I had the chance to visit Morocco, and had the chance to have some real good conversations with our tour guide. We just happen to go right in the middle of Ramadan, so it was really weird that here we were being served this great lunch, while the restaurant was completely empty, knowing everyone else was fasting.
The guide was actually impressed as to my knowledge of Islam, LOL if he only knew.
This is yet a new low for the Hillary-loving Christian Post.
They probably believe their readers MUST be statistically ignorant.
Agreed. They don’t take proportionality into account. When you’re 5% of the population, you have to be isolationist NOT to have friends from the majority.
While the percentages may differ, the numbers are exactly equal.
So does "interacting" include robbery and assault?
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"Foundation for Ethnic Understanding of New York"
Strongly supported by Bill Clinton, Marc Rich and his wife (yeah, THAT Marc Rich), New York fashion people and a host of other ner-de-wells.
I won't believe a word coming from this organization.
If they are true believers of their koran then they can have no infidel friends unless they are deceiving them in order to do them harm late which is approved by the koran.
If 2 million Muslims have .5 evangelical friends .5 * 2 million = 1 million. 1 million / 2 million = 50% of Muslims have evangelical friends.
If there are 20 million evangelicals we know already that 1 million of them have Muslim friends. So, 1 million / 20 million = 5% have Muslim friends.
NO MATTER HOW MANY MORE MUSLIM FRIENDS EVANGELICALS MAKE - THEY WILL NEVER CATCH UP TO RATES OF MUSLIMS.
That's a joke, right?
FFEU propaganda. I’m not surprised.
Agreed. The West must recover its Christian identity for that reason.
And in another study a black sheep is more likely to be found grazing next to a white sheep than a white sheep is to be found next to a black sheep. Shocking but true.
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