Discrimination against Muslims on rise in US: Survey

The US is becoming an increasingly Muslim-unfriendly country, a survey released by the Pew Research Center revealed on Wednesday.

The study showed that nearly three-quarters of Muslims interviewed agreed that there was "a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the US," and nearly two-thirds of them said they were unsatisfied about where the nation has been headed, Xinhua reported.

Muslim opinion has undergone a stark reversal since 2011, when Barack Obama was president, at which point most Muslims thought the country was headed in the right direction, said the survey.

About 48 per cent of respondents admitted that they have experienced at least one incident of discrimination in the past 12 months, which was up from 40 per cent in 2007.

About one-in-five Muslims in the US have seen anti-Muslim graffiti in their local community in the past year.

The survey pointed out that Muslims were "leery of Trump" and thought their fellow Americans did not see Islam as part of mainstream US society.

Meanwhile, Muslim Americans remained persistently optimistic and positive. About 89 per cent of the respondents expressed pride in their Muslimness and Americanness.

It is estimated that there are roughly 3.35 million Muslims living in the country.

--IANS

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