Opinion: Muslim Americans: What is the glass half-full of?

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Confused by the Pew Research Center’s new report on Muslim Americans? Various good people of the anti-idiotarian-fightin’-the-islamofascists-jihadi-hatin’-non-dimmi variety are hoppin’ mad about the way the MSM have been downplaying evidence of extremism in the survey results—Exhibit A being an AP headline that changed from emphasizing that the majority rejects suicide bombings to one that notes a substantial minority does not reject suicide bombings. I’ll split the difference and say there are far more Muslim Americans who defend suicide bombings than I would prefer, and note that the L.A. Times has stuck with the following headline throughout the day: ‘Some younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings could be justified.’ I don’t see any problem with that version of the story, but maybe I’m not trying hard enough.

In any event there is plenty of interesting stuff in this report, including the tidbit that while U.S. Muslims are more likely than U.S. Christians to claim religion is “very important” in their lives, Christians are more likely to claim they pray every day and attend a house of worship every week. Some of that may be explained by pious perjury, but then substantially more Christians (54%) than Muslims (43%) agree with the statement ‘Mosques/churches should express views on political & social issues.’ Given the received wisdom that separation of mosque and state in Islam presents unique religous problems, that’s pretty interesting.

If that’s encouraging, however, I’m less sanguine about the question of whether you prefer a larger or smaller government: More than two thirds of U.S. Muslims prefer a larger government that provides more services. That makes my heart sink. Go ahead and chortle at my libertarian lunacy, liberal friends; it won’t seem so funny when you get an idea of how poll participants view the government’s role. Nearly two-thirds believe ‘society’ should discourage homosexuality, and almost that many believe government should do more to promote morality. On all these questions, the Muslim majorities are widely out of step with the overall American population.

And that’s not even touching on views about the GWOT, the invasion of Afghanistan, and related issues. But don’t take my word for it: Read the whole report. [pdf]

Update: Little Green Footballers respond—calmly! coolly! with debonair suaveness of unflappable serenity!—to my ‘hoppin’ mad’ characterization right here and in the comments. (Mini-update: Don’t believe the sloppy reporting at LGF! I am not Tim Cavanagh the song parodist. I’ve been battling these rumors for years!) Celebrity commentators Charles ‘MC LGF’ Johnson, Ben Hur and even the Bay Area’s mysterious and intriguing Zombie weigh in. Welcome one, welcome all! Increase the peace.