A new poll from Time magazine out this morning suggests it’s not a great time to be a Muslim in America if you’re trying to build a community center in lower Manhattan or hoping to get nominated to the Supreme Court or run for President.
Simply put, it’s not a great time for American Muslims to try and exercise those Constitutionally-granted rights of theirs.
The poll finds that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the planned Muslim community center near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan — and overwhelmingly support the notion that building it is an insult to the the families of the victims of 9/11. Sixty-one percent of respondents to the poll said that the Cordoba House shouldn’t be built at the site of that old Burlington Coat Factory, while “more than 70%” concurred “with the premise that proceeding with the plan would be an insult to the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center.”
So it seems property rights are out for American Muslims. Just 55% of respondents said they’d be happy with a mosque being built two blocks from their own home (by contrast: more than 70% said they’d be OK with a Catholic church or Jewish synagogue built in the same location.)
It seems that, according to many Americans, public service for Muslims isn’t a great career move, either.
Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed by Time said Muslims shouldn’t be eligible for a seat on the Supreme Court. And 32% said they shouldn’t be allowed to serve as President.
So that’s a few possible careers down. But there’s a lotta fish in the sea. And at least American Muslims are still welcomed as freedom-loving Americans by their fellow citizens, right?
Not so much.
The Time poll found that just 55% of those surveyed said that Muslims living in the U.S. are “are patriotic Americans who believe in American values.” A quarter of respondents said that they knew for sure that that American Muslims are not patriots. Twenty-one percent declined to answer to said they didn’t know.
Time surveyed 1,002 Americans Aug. 16-17. The poll has a margin of error of 3%.
