Last Thursday Gallup released the results of a recent ‘World Religion Survey’ showing that 53% of Americans had at the very least a ‘not too favorable’ view of Islam.

In a separate question American were asked to express how much prejudice they had against 4 major world religions- Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. 43% of Americans said that they had at least ‘a little’ prejudice against Muslims. Far higher than the other three religions in the survey.

Nearly every article that I read claimed that the major problem was American ignorance of Islam. Several articles pointed out that at least 63% of the country knew ‘only a little’ or ‘nothing at all’ about the Muslim religion.

In my experience, ignorance is not necessarily the cause of an unfavorable view of Islam. Also, greater knowledge doesn’t necessarily bring with it a better view. Actually it could result in an even worse opinion.

I will say this—when all I knew was only a little bit about Islam my view of the religion was far more positive. No, an ‘unfavorable view of Islam’ can also be the result of knowing too much.  <<Read the whole article on the AFTF main page>>           *Top