Most Democrats Don’t Consider Islam More Violent Than Other Religions, CBS Poll Reveals

But Republicans do.

By Liberty McArtor Published on February 8, 2017

Most Democrats don’t think Islam is more violent than other religions, according to a CBS poll published last week. Most Republicans do.

66 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents believe Islam encourages violence “the same amount” as other religions. Sixty-three percent of Republicans believe that Islam encourages more violence than other religions.

Surveys by the Pew Research Center in 2013 revealed that the majority of Muslims around the world do not support violence in the name of Islam, with about seven in 10 saying suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians are never justified. About eight in 10 Muslims in the U.S. said the same.

Participants in the CBS poll were also asked about Trump’s executive order on immigration. Eight-five percent of Democrats disapprove of Trump’s 90-day travel ban restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. 85 percent of Republicans approve.

Eighty-eight percent of Americans say religion shouldn’t matter when admitting immigrants. 87 percent of Christians agreed.

Defeating Radical Islam

The nature of Islam is one of the dividing lines in American politics. President Donald Trump has repeatedly spoken of defeating radical Islam. In his address at the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast, he promised to combat “unimaginable violence carried out in the name of religion.” He mentioned ISIS’s attacks on Christians, peaceful Muslims and Jews.

Trump’s willingness to use the term “radical Islam”differs starkly from President Barack Obama’s hesitancy to use the term when describing the fight against the Islamic State and al Qaeda. As the Washington Times reported in November, Obama rejected the label because Islamic terror groups “want to claim that they are the true leaders of over a billion Muslims around the world who reject their crazy notions.”

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