A library photo of American Muslims paying tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The percentage of Americans having a favorable opinion of Muslim Americans is on the rise, while the number of Americans believing that Islam was a violent religion is declining, a new poll has showed.

The percentage of Americans viewing Islam in favorable light rose from 45 percent in March 2001 -- before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States -- to 51 percent in July 2003 to 55 percent today, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, MSNBC reported.

It found that the more a respondent knows about Islam, the more likely he or she is to regard Muslim Americans favorably, the survey found.

Forty-four (44) percent of respondents of a high knowledge of Islam said it had a lot in common with their own religion, and 61 percent of them said they have a favorable view of Muslim Americans.

The survey interviewed 2,000 adults by telephone from July 7 to July 17. It was  conducted after the July 7 terrorist attack on three subways and a bus in London killed 56 people, including six Muslims, other than the four suicide bombers.

British Muslims condemned in the strongest possible terms the grisly attacks on fellow citizens.

A statement issued by over 40 leading mosque imams, muftis and scholars representing all sections of Muslims in Britain stressed that “there can never be any excuse for taking an innocent life.”

Famed British writer Karen Armstrong said on July 9 in a Guardian piece that terror has no religion, with people calling themselves Muslims, Christians or Jews committing crimes in the name of their great religions.

The spiritual leader of the Church of England, Rowan Williams, has further warned against making Muslims “scapegoats” for the London bombings.

Accepted Islam

Fewer and fewer Americans believe that Islam itself is more violent than other religions, according to the poll.

Two years ago, 44 percent believed Islam “is more likely to encourage violent behavior among its followers,” Pew said. That figure dropped to 36 percent in the new poll.

More and more Americans refuse to see themselves as at war with the Muslim faith.

A clear majority, 60 percent, say the conflict is with a small radical element, compared with only 29 percent who see it as a conflict between the West and Islam itself, down from 35 percent in August 2002.

Policies of the Bush administration, coupled with some media campaigns, are widely to blame for increasing hate feelings against the Muslim minority in the United States, following the 9/11 attacks.

A May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that the Arab Americans and the Muslim minority have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

In interviews with IslamOnline.net in November of last year, many Americans said that they saw Muslims as having “excellent values, are very caring people, family oriented and very sincere in their religious belief.”