Muslim Americans Feel Optimistic, Patriotic: Poll

A Gallup poll revealed that American Muslims generally feel integrated into American culture and confident in its political institutions, challenging a perception that Muslims feel marginalized or detached from society.

The findings were tempered by the fact that a significantly higher percentage of Muslims reported experiencing discrimination than any other group surveyed. But Muslims were the most likely to believe elections would be fair and 60 percent said they had confidence in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has directed counterterrorism operations against American Muslims.

"The prejudice and discrimination are definitely there, and that's something we have consistently seen in the data," said Mohamed Younis, senior analyst with the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and an author of the study. "But at the same time many of the people in the Muslim-American community seem to be doing relatively well, and part of their doing well is being able to be full-fledged Americans, to participate in the American experience."

Nine out of 10 Muslims surveyed said that their fellow Muslims did not sympathize with Al-Qaeda. They also exhibited a stronger aversion to violence against civilians than any other group.

They were more critical of U.S. foreign policy than other groups surveyed, calling the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq a mistake and agreeing that poor perceptions of the U.S. from Muslims abroad were the result of "what the U.S. has done" rather than "misinformation." They were less trustful of the U.S. military than other groups.