Discrimination against Muslims on rise in US

September 11th, 2010 marked 9th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. Events included 9th Commemoration ceremony and the Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Muslim Bigotry rally. (Photo by Viktor Nagornyy, CC BY 2.0)

WASHINGTON, July 27— The United States 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 by Pew nationwide agreed that there was “a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the United States,” and nearly two-thirds of them said they were unsatisfied about where the nation has been headed.

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

About one-in-five Muslims in the United States 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 percent of the respondents expressed pride in their Muslimness and Americanness.

Pew interviewed over 1,000 Muslim adults nationwide in the first five months of the year.