U.S. Muslim Opinion Over Time: Final Report

The research conducted under CSTAB 2.12 consisted of three waves of surveys of U.S. Muslims. The first wave was administered in July 2013; the second took place in July 2014, and the third wave was in September-October 2014. Each survey asked participants’ opinions about U.S. Muslims’ experience in the United States, and about their attitudes toward international events that concern Muslim countries. Some of the questions were taken from Pew and Gallup polls, and other questions were developed by the investigators. One goal of the research was to test the efficacy of quick turn-around Internet polling in a minority population of interest. A second goal was to measure changes in the opinions and attitudes of U.S. Muslims over time. Both goals were achieved: unexpected political events, including the rise of ISIS, provided an opportunity to assess changing opinions of U.S. Muslims quickly and inexpensively. Key findings detailed in the report are: moderation of opinions in combined sample over waves; increased standard deviation in combined sample over waves; and differences between the panel and off panel components of the Internet sample. Methodologically the key result was the convergence of Internet results with 2007 and 2011 Pew telephone polling results: the percent of U.S. Muslims justifying suicide bombing in defense of Islam was 8 percent in Pew polling and 7 percent in our Internet polling.