Jewish and Muslim Americans are the two religious groups most likely to have positive opinions of each other, pollster Dalia Mogahed said in an interview that aired Thursday on “What America’s Thinking.”
“So much of the dominant narrative right now is that it’s supposed to be these two groups are hostile toward each other,” Mogahed, director of research at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on Wednesday.
“That’s the opposite of the truth,” she said. “In fact, Jews are the most likely to have positive opinions about Muslims of any religious community in America, and their views are reciprocated exactly by Muslims toward Jews.”
Mogahed was citing new ISPU polling that measured the relationship between Muslim and Jewish Americans. Fifty-three percent of Jewish respondents said they had positive views of Muslims, while only 13 percent of Jewish respondents said they had negative views of their Muslim counterparts.
“There’s actually a very relatively warm relationship between the two communities,” she said. “Jewish Americans are also the most likely to know a Muslim well, and to call a Muslim a close friend.”
— Julia Manchester
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