A recent poll conducted by the Gallup organization from January to June 2014 indicates that President Obama has a 72 percent approval ratings among Muslims polled. The poll also looked at other religious affiliations and indicates that Mormons have the least favorable view of Obama with only 18 percent approving of his job as president.
Major right leaning websites such as The Drudge Report have posted these results in bold headlines attempting to call into question Obama’s popularity amongst Muslims. The president has indicated on multiple occasions that he is Christian and not Muslim, which is what is being implied. The poll used data from a control group of 88,000 participants at a time when Obama’s overall approval rating was 43 percent.
According to Politico.com “Friday’s findings are in line with Gallup results on religious groups’ approval ratings of Obama since the beginning of his presidency — the relative rank of the groups have not changed in the six years Obama has been in office. The president’s approval rating in every group for the past six months has dropped 5-7 points from the average of his entire presidency.” So depending on interpretation of data, Obama’s rating amongst Muslims, has always been on the high side. The information that was released this past Friday does not indicate how many Muslims were of African American descent. According to a 2009 Gallup poll, native-born American Muslims are mainly African Americans and make up about a”35 percent of the total Muslim population.”
Since the beginning of Obama’s presidency, his name change from Barry Soetoro to Barak Obama has been used as an attempt to not only racially but also religiously divide the American public. Now once again when the political right sees an opening, it wages a fear mongering campaign using religion as a weapon. To view the recent Gallup Poll data go to the Gallup politics link.
