Cordoba House

Poll: Less Than A Quarter Of Americans Have 'Favorable' View Of Islam

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 26, 2010, 10:47AM

The Islamic Circle of North America-NY hosts a rally.

Proponents of the Cordoba House project planned for Lower Manhattan have said that one of the project's goals is to build a mutual understanding between American Islam and the non-Muslim American majority. A new national poll shows there's a long way to go before that vision is a reality.

The survey of 1,082 adults conducted this week by CBS found just 24% of respondents had a "favorable" view of Islam. Nearly 40% said they had an "unfavorable" view of the second-largest religion on the planet, while 37% said they don't have an opinion on the faith.

Not surprisingly, those numbers translated into very little support for the Cordoba House project. Just 22% of all respondents said it was "appropriate" for the Muslim cultural center to be built near Ground Zero, while 71% said it was "inappropriate."

Among the plurality who hold an unfavorable opinion of Islam, support for the project was almost nonexistent. Nine percent said it was appropriate for Cordoba House to be built, while 88% said it was inappropriate. Those holding a favorable view of Islam split on Cordoba -- 50% said building it was appropriate, while 42% said it was inappropriate.

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Anti-Mosque Movement Draws Support From Controversial European Politician

Brian Beutler | August 20, 2010, 6:00PM

A mosque in Detroit (protesters decrying a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero in New York inset).

Pamela Geller, the woman who arguably touched off the weeks-long fight over the Cordoba House, is organizing a September 11 protest to stop the project, and she's invited some of America's most high-profile conservatives to attend. But she's also enlisting the help of one of the most controversial anti-Muslim politicians in Europe.

Joining Geller and Andrew Breitbart, among others, will be Dutch politician Geert Wilders, the controversial anti-Muslim leader of the right wing Freedom Party in the Netherlands.

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Barack Obama

Poll: Number Of Americans Who Think Obama Is A Muslim Nearly Doubles

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 19, 2010, 9:07AM

President Barack Obama

The number of Americans who say President Obama is a Muslim has nearly doubled since March 2009, according to a new poll from Pew out today. The poll finds that 18% of Americans say the president -- who, it should be said for the record, is a practicing Christian -- is a Muslim. That's up from 11% who said the same thing in March of last year.

At the same time, a new poll from Time magazine shows a widespread distrust of Islam among Americans, and an overwhelming opposition to the Cordoba House project in Manhattan. The Time poll also found that 24% of Americans say Obama is a Muslim.

No group is more convinced of the president's Muslim faith than conservative Republicans. The Pew poll found 34% of them say Obama is a Muslim, which is an increase from 18% in the March 2009 survey. The number is not that much different from Republicans overall -- 31% of all Republicans surveyed by Pew said Obama practices Islam, and 24% of "moderate and liberal" members of the GOP said the same thing.

But the mistaken view of Obama's faith is up among Democrats, too. Ten percent of Democrats surveyed said Obama is a Muslim, up from 7% in March 2009. The breakdown of those numbers: 12 percent of "conservative and moderate" Democrats say Obama is Muslim (up from 9% last year) and 6% of liberal Democrats do (up from 5%).

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

GOP Muslims Fear Failure Of Bush Outreach Efforts After Anti-Mosque Furor

Brian Beutler | August 18, 2010, 11:10AM

Fmr. President George W. Bush (R)

After winning nearly 80 percent of the Muslim vote in 2000, George Bush bled much of it away in the post 9/11 era. The war in Iraq, the PATRIOT Act, detainment and other policies drove at least half of that support to John Kerry and third party candidates in 2004. But all the while, several influential Muslim Republicans, both inside the administration and out, were working hard to staunch the bleeding and build a donor base among wealthy members of the Muslim community.

Today, several of them say that their efforts are being undermined, if not completely destroyed, by Republicans stoking anti-Muslim sentiment by opposing the construction of the Cordoba House -- now known infamously and inaccurately as the "Ground Zero Mosque".

"We've been working hard, some Muslim Americans, some non-Muslims, to keep the Muslim American community and other minorities on the party side, to keep relationships going," says David Ramadan, a Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. "All of that is threatened to be thrown down the drain."

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Rubio: 'Ground Zero Mosque' Controversy Won't Hurt U.S.-Muslim Relations

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 17, 2010, 4:23PM

Senate candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL)

Marco Rubio says that Muslims in other nations should look fondly on the United States as a bastion of religious tolerance following the Cordoba House flap. Rubio, the Florida Republican running against Independent Gov. Charlie Crist in a tight Senate race, has joined the chorus of politicians publicly opposing the proposed lower Manhattan Islamic cultural center on the grounds that building it would be "opening wounds" from 9/11.

On a conference call with reporters this afternoon, I asked Rubio how he thought views like his would play among moderate Muslims across the globe. (At an event I attended earlier today, some religious leaders suggested that the tough rhetoric opposing the project could have a negative effect on the way Muslims view the United States.)

"I would point out to Muslims all over the world that America is one of the few countries on earth where every faith is represented," Rubio said. "We have a long and cherished tradition of religious liberties and freedom, and none of that is being questioned in my mind."

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Harry Reid

Reid's Opposition To The 'Ground Zero Mosque' Surprises Dems -- And Leaves Them Vulnerable

Brian Beutler | August 16, 2010, 8:29PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Just before noon today, Sharron Angle pressed Harry Reid to pick a side: "As the Majority Leader, Harry Reid is usually President Obama's mouthpiece in the U.S. Senate, and yet he remains silent on this issue," read a statement from her communications director, Jarrod Agen. "Reid has a responsibility to stand up and say no to the mosque at Ground Zero or once again side with President Obama."

By about 3 p.m., he made his decision: he would publicly break from Obama -- a move that would come as a surprise to many in his party.

"The First Amendment protects freedom of religion," spokesman Jim Manley said in a statement. "Sen. Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else."

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Muslims

How New York's 'Ground Zero Mosque' Fell Into Florida's Political Spotlight

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 16, 2010, 4:29PM

Marco Rubio (R), candidate for US Senate in Florida

According to Google, the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan is 1,275 miles away from downtown Miami, Florida. But that doesn't mean the proposed Cordoba House that's likely to be constructed blocks away from the former site of the Twin Towers hasn't become a big issue in Florida politics.

Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio -- already an ardent supporter of all things conservative (if you don't count his against-it-before-I-was-kind-of-for-it stance on Arizona's immigration law) -- is taking a firm stand with the rest of his party by vocally opposing the Cordoba House project.

"It is divisive and disrespectful to build a mosque next to the site where 3,000 innocent people were murdered at the hands of Islamic extremism," Rubio said in a statement Saturday.

Both men running for the GOP's gubernatorial nomination say basically the same thing. Attorney General Bill McCollum says he'd be OK with a Muslim construction project "farther away" from the Ground Zero site and former hospital exec Rick Scott is already running a TV ad attacking "Obama's Mosque."

So that's that. Anti-mosque Republicans can stand by their men in the Sunshine State.

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Ground Zero Mosque

How Republicans Might Drag The 'Ground Zero Mosque' Fight Into The Fall

Brian Beutler | August 16, 2010, 2:52PM

Sen. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Barack Obama

From Terri Schiavo to "death panels," Congressional recesses have long bred political controversies. But while some (like Schiavo) fizzle, others, (like "death panels") have a lasting impact on policy and politics. An open question for now is whether the row over the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" will be with us past August.

Republicans and conservative activists have made no secret of the fact that they want the issue to have legs, but that gets trickier when politicians return to Washington to actually govern. One option Republicans will have to pressure Democrats on the issue will be to force Democrats to vote on the question of whether they support the cultural center and mosque.

"There are no plans to do that at this point," says a top Republican House aide. "It's a month away, and I'd guess any chances we get to message...will be focused on jobs."

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New York City

Muslim Rights Advocate: Why Aren't NY Dems Speaking Up For Us?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 5, 2010, 4:55PM

A Muslim civil rights advocate says it's "concerning" that more prominent New York Democrats aren't speaking up in the debate over new mosque projects in New York City. Ibrahim Ramey, civil rights director for the Muslim American Society in Washington, told me today that it surprises him how few Democratic politicians have spoken up as angry right-wing protesters have taken on mosque projects in Staten Island, Brooklyn and, of course, lower Manhattan.

"It's been very, very disappointing really," Ramey said. "To the extent that we're not hearing from prominent Democrats, it really is a concerning thing. Concerning for Muslims and for the nation as a whole."

Check out TPM's roundup on what New York Dems have said -- and haven't said -- about the issue here.

Ramey said for him, it's not about the politics. He just expects more politicians to offer the no-holds-barred statements in support of Muslim rights that he said New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg did in his recent speech endorsing the so-called Ground Zero mosque project.

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