9 February 2016

Many Americans sceptical about Islam and evangelical Christianity

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Last week Barack Obama visited a mosque in Baltimore and we took the opportunity to ask our YouGov First Verdict panel what they thought about Islam:

islam

A narrow majority of Americans (51%) thought that Islam was either violent in character or, despite “largely” being “a religion of peace”, it contained teachings that encouraged extremism. A minority (31%) agreed with the statement that Islam is a peaceful religion and that those who used it to justify violence were in some way wrong to do so.

But it’s not just Islam that many Americans worry about. Earlier in the week – after Christian voters in Iowa had helped power Senator Ted Cruz to his victory in the state’s caucus – we asked the panel to rate evangelical influence in politics. By more than two-to-one, in a forced choice, voters thought it encouraged extremism rather than enhancement:

evangelical

For more about Portrait of America and the methodology behind First Verdict, click here.

For the complete Portrait of America catalog, click here.

Tim Montgomerie is Editor of Portrait of America