American Muslims Are More Accepting of Homosexuality Than White Evangelicals, According to New Study
A new survey looking at different faiths' acceptance of the LGBT community shows that Muslims in America have become more accepting of homosexuality over the past decade compared to other faith groups. They're also doing it at a faster rate than white evangelical Protestants.
New statistics from the Pew Research Center show that 52 percent of U.S. Muslims believe that homosexuality should be accepted by society, which almost double since 2007. Even among foreign-born Muslims in America, 47 percent of them feel the same compared to 34 percent of Protestants who agreed when asked about the subject last year.
Evangelicals are also slower when it comes to shifting their views on the subject, with only 11 percentage points between 2006 and 2016 compared to Muslims' 25 percentage points from 2007 to 2017. The result is baffling, considering that Sharia law imposes harsher penalties on homosexuality.
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Urooj Arshad, a member of Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, observed that it isn't surprising for Muslims to become accepting of homosexuals considering the two groups have both been both marginalized and discriminated in the U.S. "Since September 11, the Muslim community has been dealing with severe erosion of their civil rights which has made the community more sympathetic to violations of civil rights against other marginalized communities in the U.S.," he said.
On the other hand, evangelicals have an overall negative view of Islam. Another Pew survey found that half of white evangelicals believe there is a "great deal" or "fair amount" of support for extremism among Muslims living on U.S. soil. More than half of them believe Islam encourages violence.
Evangelical Protestants happen to be the largest religious group in the U.S., making up a little over than 25 percent of all Americans. The group also has the backing of President Donald Trump who told Pat Robertson during an appearance on "700 Club" earlier this summer, "You have the people that I love: the evangelicals."
