How Americans View Islam

How Americans View Islam - Negatively!

"As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence."

The Washington Post reports on the above poll.

It is unlikely that were a poll to be taken in Australia that the outcome would be much different. Any hope, however remote - for building bridges between communities or teaching tolerance appear to recede when one has regard to the ill-informed, misguided and ignorant - if not downright bigoted - comments such as those made by John Howard and Peter Costello, Bronwyn Bishop or Dana Vaile. Shades of the old Goerring theory? Repeat the lie often enough and people will eventually believe it!

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