A Cornell University poll finds that 44 percent of the US population believe that Muslim Americans are a threat and their civil liberties should be curtailed.
The survey found that 27 percent of respondents believe Muslim Americans should be required to register with federal law enforcement agencies, 26 percent say that investigators should monitor mosques and 29 percent that undercover police officers should infiltrate Islamic organizations. And 22 percent would accept profiling of Muslims and people with Middle Eastern ties.
The Media and Society Research Group in Cornell's School of Communications commissioned the poll, which surveyed 715 people by telephone.
The survey found that Republicans are more likely to favor security over civil rights for Muslims than Democrats. Those who described themselves as religious Christians were more likely to perceive Islam as encouraging violence and Islamic countries as violent and dangerous than those who said that they were not religious.
But the overwhelming majority of both groups said that Islam is oppressive to women.
44 percent in US fear Muslims
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