No Islamic Backlash, Polls Reveal

Angus Reid has published an interesting set of polls concerning the November 5, 2009 Fort Hood spree shooting.

In the online survey of a representative sample of 1,005 American adults, more than three-infour respondents (78%) say they have followed news stories about the recent shooting at Fort Hood very or moderately closely. Roughly half of Americans (48%) believe a similar incident is likely to happen again at other military bases across the country, while one-third (32%) consider the Forth Hood shooting an isolated incident.

Three-in-five Americans (61%) believe that Hasan is a Muslim is relevant to the investigation into this incident. Still, just a third of respondents (33%) express opposition to Muslims being allowed to serve in the U.S. military. Respondents in the South are more likely to support banning Muslims from serving in the U.S. military (41%, compared to 31% in the West, and 28% in both the Northeast and the Midwest).

Only one-in-five Americans (19%) express a favorable opinion of Islam, while two-in-five (43%) hold unfavorable views. A third of Americans believe that mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims, while a slightly higher proportion (39%) regards mainstream Islam as a peaceful religion.

Angus Reid chose to emphasize the plurality of voters with negatives views of Islam. I noted how many respondents were undecided. 38% neither favor or oppose Islam, and 27% have no opinion about Islam’s peaceful or violent nature. The only poll question where fewer than 10% of respondents were undecided concerned whether respondents had or had not known of the incident through news. What I conclude is, that the polling results track the affiliations respondents have to particular news organizations.