U.S. media is reporting on the latest poll on U.S. Muslims conducted by the Gallup organization. According to a Washington Post report:
Wednesday, August 3, 2:27 AM Ten years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Muslim Americans are more optimistic than other major faith groups about their future, even as they report greater discrimination and less confidence in the FBI and the U.S. military, a new poll has found. In the report by Gallup, which measures American Muslims’ political, social and spiritual engagement, almost two in three Muslims said their standard of living is improving, up 18 percentage points from 2008 and higher than any other faith group surveyed. This is the same period that Muslim leaders say has been the most oppressive for Muslims in this country, with rhetoric against their faith group appearing to rise. Gallup analysts credited Muslims’ optimism in part to the election of President Obama, who has not appeared at an American mosque since taking office but has often spoken out about the need for Muslim equality and civil rights. Only 9 percent of American Muslims identify as Republicans, Gallup said. Eighty percent of Muslims in America said in 2011 that they approve of Obama, vs. 7 percent who expressed support for President George W. Bush in 2008.”
Read the rest here.
Previous posts have covered other polls conducted by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.
The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies has ties to the U.S. and global Muslim Brotherhood. The Executive Director of the Gallup Center is Dahlia Mogahed who was appointed in April 2009 as one of two Muslim members to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Ms. Mogahed, who was born in Egypt and lived in the U.S. since the age of 5 was identified in 2003 as the Outreach Coordinator for the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh (ICP) whose co-founder lost a DOE security clearance and whose Imam was last reported facing deportation on immigration violations. Ms. Mogahed is the daughter of Elsayed Mogahed, an Egyptian immigrant who is a former engineering scientist at the University of Wisconsin and is currently the President of the Islamic Center of Madison (ICM). The website of the ICM had in the past linked mainly to U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations and Souheil Ghannouchi, the President of the Muslim American Society (MAS), was ICM Imam and President for several years. The MAS is part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and closest to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Ms. Mogahed is a co-author of a book with Dr. John Esposito, a Senior Scientist at the Gallup Center, suggesting that majority of the world’s Muslims support some form of democracy. Dr. Esposito has consistently espoused views consistent with Brotherhood doctrine and during the 1990’s was known for his claims that Islamic fundamentalism was, in fact, democratic and posed no threat to the U.S. Dr. Esposito has at least a dozen past or present affiliations with global Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas organizations including having served on the advisory board of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in the U.K. headed by Azzam Tamimi, a leader in the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood and often described as a Hamas spokesman. Dr. Esposito has also served with global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi on the Steering Committee of the Circle of Tradition and Progress and enjoyed a close relationship with the United Association For Studies and Research (USAR), part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and part of the Hamas support infrastructure. In 2005, Saudi prince Alaweed bin Talal, a financial supporter of the global Muslim Brotherhood donated $20 million to the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown, headed by Dr. Esposito.
Finally, Ahmed Younis is the Senior Consultant for Gallup and a Senior Analyst for the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. Mr. Younis was previously a National Director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a U.S. organization also linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. Younis’ past role with MPAC is omitted from his biography at Gallup.