In the most recent ABC/WaPo poll, further published analysis notes some interesting data re Islam and Muslim nations.
81% believe it's important for Obama to try to improve U.S. relations with Muslim nations (46% think it's very important.) One wonders who the 18% who disagree are. Further, 65% think Obama will go just the right distance to do so (22% think he'll go too far.)
And whereas only 45% think they have a "good basic understanding of the teachings and beliefs of Islam", this represents an improvement from the 34% who said so in 2001. In fact, only 47% of respondents know anyone who is a Muslim (53% do not.)
One disturbing number in the poll: whereas 58% think mainstream Islam is a peaceful religion (virtually unchanged from 2001), the number who think mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims has grown from 14% to 29% (as the number who answer "do not know" shrinks.)
The polling analysis provided by WaPo adds some insight into partisan and religious affiliation:
Nearly half of Republicans said Obama is apt to overreach in his efforts to advance U.S. relations, while large majorities of Democrats and independents alike said they think he'll walk the right line.
Republicans are also more apt than others to hold negative attitudes toward Islam, with six in 10 having unfavorable views, compared with about four in 10 for Democrats and independents. Among conservative Republicans, 65 percent view Islam unfavorably; liberal Democrats, by contrast, are 60 percent positive.
This partisan divide is also apparent on the question of whether mainstream Islam encourages hostility toward non-Muslims, with Republicans about twice as likely as Democrats to say it does. Nearly half of conservative Republicans see centrist Islam as a promoter of violence.
Perceptions of Islam as a peaceful faith are the highest among non-religious Americans, with about two-thirds holding that view. Among Catholics, 60 percent see mainstream Islam as a peaceful faith; it is 55 percent among all Protestants, but drops to 48 percent among white evangelical Protestants.
Conservative Republicans are just... different. They're more likely to get their news from Fox (Pew 2004), and less likely to get their news from network TV, local TV or newspapers (Pew, 2008):
That raises a question in my mind. What kind of perception damage does only watching Fox do to voters? Remember the Michelle-Barack terrorist fist jab?
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The ABC/WaPo poll doesn't get at why "nearly half of conservative Republicans see centrist Islam as a promoter of violence" but I have my suspicions that watching too much Fox isn't good for your reality-based faculties. After all, if you don't know much about the religion, where are you getting your information from? It'd be interesting to see someone follow up on that.