A poll conducted by The Polling Company for the Center for Security Policy shows some worrisome and some hopeful results. While a slim majority of American Muslims would choose sharia law over American courts, a slightly larger majority say violence against those that slander their prophet Mohammed or Islam is unacceptable.
The poll of 600 Muslims was conducted in an online panel between June 1 and June 10 and released this week.
Asked if American Muslims should have the choice between sharia courts or American courts, 51% somewhat or strongly agreed that sharia should be available. By contrast 32% somewhat or strongly disagreed while 17% gave no answer. As for violence, while 60% said violence against those that insult Islam is unacceptable, 29% said it was acceptable.
The survey asked respondents to agree or disagree with the following statement: "I believe that violence against those that insult the prophet Muhammad, the Qur’an, or Islamic faith is sometimes acceptable."
A full 16% of those polled strongly agreed that violence is acceptable against those that insult Islam while 13% somewhat disagreed. Meanwhile 25% agreed with the statement that, "Violence against Americans here in the United States can be justified as part of the global jihad."
Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, said that with estimates putting the Muslim population of the United States at 3 million or more, these results are worrying.
That would translate into roughly 300,000 Muslims living in the United States who believe that shariah is “the Muslim God Allah’s law that Muslims must follow and impose worldwide by Jihad," Gaffney said in a statement.
The poll also found a minority of American Muslims supported groups such as ISIS (9%), al Qaeda (8%) and the Muslim Brotherhood (18%).
Gaffney said the majority of Americans reject shariah law and called upon Muslims living in the United States to do the same:
It is incumbent on the many American Muslims who want neither to live under the brutal repression of shariah nor to impose it on anybody else to work with the rest of us who revere and uphold the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution in protecting our nation against the Islamic supremacists and their jihad.
