How mainstream are America’s Muslims?

A comprehensive survey of U.S. Muslims released last week, apparently the first of its kind, offered a mostly mainstream picture of a community that has fallen under a microscope since 9/11.

The poll, which estimates there are 2.35 million Muslims here, found that far fewer of them live in low-income households than their coreligionists in four European countries, and most feel that life is better here than in Muslim countries. A majority are happy with their lives here, and 60 percent said they were concerned about the rise of Muslim extremism. Like most Americans, a majority feel the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a mistake.

But the phone survey of 1,050 adults by the Pew Research Center, taken between January and April, has generated some heat with its finding that about a quarter of younger Muslims justify suicide bombings under some circumstances, and some note with alarm the number that falls outside the mainstream.

Concluding:

In its reaction to the poll, the Zionist Organization of America, noted the finding that 40 percent of those surveyed agreed that Arabs orchestrated 9/11, while 32 percent declined to answer the question, and 16 percent do not believe Palestinians can have full rights as long as Israel exists.

“Despite being in the main a settled, prosperous community, Muslims are clearly not mainstream in their general political and moral views,” said ZOA President Morton Klein in a statement.

That sounds about right, doesn’t it? American Muslims live (economically at least) like most Americans do, but the views of many, many Muslims are quite different from ‘mainstream America.’

It seems to me that this is a cause for worry. Sure, there are good, and hopeful signs, but there also clearly signs that not all is going well.