The Public’s Line in the Sand On Islam

In his latest Spengler column, David Goldman ask s Why Don’t Americans Like Muslims? After surveying the “predictable” responses to the mosque being built near the 9/11 site, he presents what data we have to answer the question (while noting that “It is hard to find consistent polling data about American attitudes towards Islam”) and concludes:

The least religious part of the American public has the most favorable view of Islam as a religion, while the most devout part has the least favorable view. For liberals (and especially for non-religious liberals) all religions are equally bad, or equally good. They all worship some kind of flying spaghetti monster, in Richard Dawkins’ infelicitous phrase, or they all seek a vague sort of “spirituality”.

And so, he writes,

Never in American history has the gap been greater between the experience of ordinary Americans and the picture of the world drawn by the intellectual elite. Hollywood has not distributed a film about Muslim terrorists for a generation. The major media go out of their way to portray Islam favorably. But when a line is drawn in the sand over a public gesture to Islam, we find a seven to three margin against.

Update: Two related articles, in case readers are interested: a Spanish bishop declares there will be No Islamic worship at cathedral, a former mosque and Ayaan Hirsi Ali explains  How to Win the Clash of Civilizations .