It's been kind of disappointing since the murder of the Charlie Hebdo satirical cartoonists. One poll shows that 75% of the American public thinks muslim religious leaders don't do enough to emphasize peace, 52% believe islam encourages violence more than other religions, and 64% think there is a global conflict between Western Civilization and islam.
I don't think any of those things are true, and they just represent the bigotry a lot of Americans have toward muslims. It is true that there are some violent muslim extremists, but there are also violent christian extremists (and I'm sure that is true also of other religions). Some people just take their religion too seriously, and are far too willing to try to force their religion on others.
But there is a new poll that gives me a little bit of hope for this country. It is the YouGov Poll -- done between January 7th and 9th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults (with a margin of error of about 4 points. The results are represented in the chart above.
It seems that most Americans do value their democracy, because they think free speech is more important than requiring the media to be respectful of religion. They support the right of the media to make fun of religion through satire -- and this is true of both sexes, all age groups, all races, and all political persuasions.
As a lover of free speech, I like that. I just hope Americans were also thinking of their own religion (and not just muslims) when they answered this question.
