In survey conducted at the end of January, Jews identify with being American more than Muslims, Catholics or Protestants.
A clear majority of American Jews, 58%, approve of the way Barack Obama is handling is job as president. The only religious group that is happier with Obama are American Muslims – 80% of them approve of Obama. Only 32% of Catholics and 28% of Protestants agree.
Muslim and Jews are also similarly inclined to root for either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders for President – or at least they were at the end of January. 30% of the Jews supported Clinton, 24% Sanders, 13% Donald Trump, 5% Ted Cruz and 3% Marco Rubio, with a further 25% apparently still on the fence. Among Muslims, support for Democrats was even starker: 40% support Clinton, 27% Sanders, 4% Trump, 2% Cruz and 1% Rubio, leaving 26% undecided. Jews and Muslims are also united in preferring Democrats to Republicans generally.
These and other comparisons between Muslims and Jews are highlighted in a new poll conducted at the end of January by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) that focuses on the American Muslim community. The ISPU is a research group with offices in Washington DC and Dearborn, Michigan dedicated to promoting understanding for American Muslims and amplifying their voices in the American public arena It is led by Egyptian born Dalia Mogahed who served on Barack Obama’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Of the four religions included in the poll, Jews are the likeliest to state that their American identity is “important to the way you think of yourself”: the figures are 70% for Jews, 60% for Muslims, 54% for Protestants and 47% for Catholics. The numbers are reversed when respondents were asked how important religion is in the way they think of themselves: 44% Jews, 64% Muslims, 79% Protestants and 85% Catholic. One of the reasons for the gap, perhaps, is that respondents who declined to name any religion at all were not included in the survey. This means that secular Americans were not polled, while Jews may have identified as such for cultural rather than religious reasons were included.
Thus, only 24% of Jews say religion is “extremely important” to their daily lives compared with 38% of Catholics, 46% of Protestants and 52% of Muslims. 37% of Muslims and 41% of Protestants and 37% of Catholics said their religion should be the main source of American law or simply one source among others, compared to only 16% of Jews. 77% of Jews said their religion should not be a source of American law, compared with 60% or less for the other three religions.
The poll finds that Muslim and Jews are the most likely to report experiencing discrimination, though the former much more than the latter: 44% of Muslims say they encounter discrimination on a regular or occasional basis, compared to 24% of Jews.
The main issue on which Muslims and Jews appear to differ is the role of religion in state affairs: Muslims and Protestants are the biggest supporters of such a role, while Jews are the smallest. Another stark difference between Muslims and Jews concerns the question of targeted assassinations: 47% of Jews say it is “sometimes justified”, along with 47% of Catholics and 42% of Protestants. But only 22% of Muslims justify such killings, perhaps because their co-religionists are the main target of targeted assassinations carried out by the U.S. (and Israel).
The poll was conducted in late January, and included 515 Muslims and 312 American Jews, with a margin of error of over 6% for both.
A certain amount of Jewish dhimmitude?
Well, I’m that rare animal, a politically conservative American Jew. I have Christian evangelical friends, and I avoid Moslems, unless they make it clear to me that they have nothing against Israel (these are hard to find but they exist).
I’m disgusted with the knee-jerk pro-Democrat orientation of most Jews here. And Isatenstein has it dead wrong; it has a lot less to do with “humanistic values” and a lot more to do with shallow, adolescent vanity, trying to appear “hip” or “cool”. If they really gave a damn about the poor and disadvantaged, they might notice that the alleged “humanistic” policies of the Democrats have kept the poor poor, and they might have also noticed that the Democratic Party of today is openly aligned with most barbaric and retrograde elements on the planet today (i.e., the Palestinians and their other Moslem world backers, whose human rights abuses and rampant oppression of gays, minorities, women, etc., fly in the face of every “value” espoused by the allegedly “humanistic” Democrats).
Trump turns me off in many respects but I’ll have no problem voting for him in the general election against Hillary or Bernie. In fact, all of the crap getting thrown Trump’s way is making him look better and better to me all the time.
my wager is that this will prove to be exaggerated and that although the squeaky wheel big mouth leftist Jews, like the others against Trump, make a lot of noise I think that there will be many who say little but vote Trump.
😛 😛 😛
looks like their game is not working
The Atlantic Ocean will not protect the US Jews from what is happening in the EU.
I love universalistic values but this is only for the next Big Bang.
In the meantime Islam is invading Europe and Erdogan is the master of the fate of Europe. He must thank Obama.
Isatenstein never heard of “La gauche caviar”.
The US Demo of today are really socialists and espouse socialist values. Bernie in Europe would be defined as a communist no matter what he claims.
But I am for healthcare for everyone (not controlled by big brother) even if it is not spelled in the constitution. It is a matter of humanistic value.
Whenever Jews engage in alliances, whether it involves Muslims or blacks or Europeans, the unity is predicated upon Jews deferring to the interests of allies. The prevailing principle is subserviance.
The lone exception has been the fundamentalist Christian Americans, in which case the scenario is inverted: Christians support Jews, Jews lavish Christians with contempt. It is unsurprising given the masochistic tendencies of most Hebrews. After several millennia, we finally encounter people who care about us so we treat them shit.
Those we should love we abuse.
Those who abuse us we love, or at least seek their love.
Freud would have a field day.
@ lsatenstein:
A few questions for you.Number one, where in the Constitution is there a right to universal health care? Number two, where does the Constitution give the president the right to appoint a Supreme Court judge without the consent of the Senate? As far as the Republicans blocking Obama’s initiatives which ones did they block? Did they block Obamacare? Did they block the insane Iranian deal? Did they block his doubling of the national debt? You’d better catch up on the facts.
@ lsatenstein:Obama only during a recess can appoint a judge but this is not a permanent appointment.
Since he is only playing political games he offered a sacrificial lamb (fittingly a sucker Jew) knowing that in the last year of his term the GOP would not take up a Supreme Court nominee.Just as the Dems would not take up a Republican nominee if the situation was reversed. See Joe Biden 1992 in the Senate as he clarified this unwritten rule.
The religion of many Democratic “Jews” is Liberalism and Judaism is second or third best. So Obama who is obviously anti-Israel is still revered by about 58% of these “Liberals” who have a Jewish background.
It is most important to these people to worship Liberalism first of all!
While assimilation is taking place, the real reason for Jewish and Islamic support for Obamas is the Democratic value system. Democrats tend to place people ahead of dollars.
If you are a Republican, you want the government to be concerned only with the constitution and the military. For everything else, you pay.
With Democrates (and the rest of the world), there is a belief in a balance between citizen rights and corporate rights.
Citizens have the right to universal medicare, for example, and free to very low cost education.
For Republicans, everything is a business, and in theory businesses will compete for your dollar and hence, the prices will always be low. In reality, salaries are low, allowing a few to earn well, and to use their power to insure that the major cost of any business, service is low.
So, the Democrats follow Jewish values, and Muslim values to take care of the weak and the poor. And that is why Democrats are getting that support.
The Republican trickle down economics did not work. The idea was good, but then there was free trade instead of fair trade.
Internet global communications, foreign low wages and low costs/fees for shipping of goods is great for business, transporting manufacturing off shore, but it is not good for US citizens.
And for two years, the spite that the Republicans had for Democrats has never been so appalling. Instead of building a country, it was block-block-block, without discussion.
And now again it’s spite for spikes sake. Block a constitutional right to appoint a Supreme court Judge.
Obama can do the appointment without consultation. If the Republicans prefer spite to actual caring of their country, and I wish he would do so.
Foreigners prefer the Democrats to Republicans. Perhaps that is another influence.
The results seem plausible even though the sample was limited. We already know that the bulk of American Jews are assimilating and are drifting away from our Jewish heritage. As many Jews become more ignorant of our heritage it is only logical that they become susceptible to negative influences leading to alienation from the Jewish community. We need a “Birthright” program for Jewish adults to teach them what it means to be Jewish.