American Muslims: Not a Monolithic Group with Conservative Views on Many Issues
Our poll with Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA) finds that American Muslims align with progressives on some issues but conservatives on several key issues: social issues like crime, immigration, transgender issues and school choice.
American Muslims are a pluralistic community that want to engage with parties. Conservatives could make inroads by emphasizing these topics, particularly given the alignment between American Muslims and Republicans on many social values.
There is substantial support for the thesis that many American Muslims are closer to Republicans on social issues and hold moderate views on others. However, the primary challenge remains the perception that Republicans are discriminatory or hostile toward Muslims, which impedes broader engagement. Bernie Sanders’ popularity with American Muslims shows that respectful engagement is critical and acknowledgement of Muslims as part of America, instead of being ignored as an “alien group” whose presence is barely worthy of acknowledgement beyond fear of terrorism regardless of policy alignment.
METHODOLOGY
Online sample of 600 self-identified Muslim respondents fielded over web panels from August 23-29, 2024 and weighted to age and gender. The margin of error is +/- 4.8.