Report: American Muslims more worried since Trump took office

World
Europe

By CGTN's Yasmeen Sami Alamiri

Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the majority of American Muslims say they feel they're subject to greater discrimination due to their religious beliefs.

The findings from a newly released Pew Research report stem from questions posed to American Muslims between Trump’s January 2017 inauguration and the month of May.

While two-thirds of American Muslims reported being dissatisfied with the direction that the United States is headed in, the vast majority (80 percent) said they are satisfied with the projection of their own lives.

The increased level of concern within the American Muslim community comes in the first year of Trump's presidency. Seventy-four percent of those surveyed believe that Trump is unfriendly to Muslims, compared to the 64 percent of those surveyed in 2011, who believed Obama was overwhelmingly friendly towards Muslims.

Within his first week of presidency, Trump signed the so-called travel ban on seven Muslim-majority nations, which also proposed blocking Syrian refugees from entering the United States. The order and the ability to implement it have since been challenged in US courts.

In the past year, 48 percent of American Muslims said they have experienced some sort of discrimination based on their religion, according to the study.

In an age of increased surveillance in the name of national security in the United States, 15 percent of US Muslims report being very worried about the government monitoring their phone calls or emails due to their religion.

However, despite the increased incidents of discrimination, 49 percent of Muslim Americans reported that they have received support from others because of their religion in the past year. In the same vein, the report showed that 89 percent of Muslims say they are proud to be both American and Muslim.