American youth more interested in learning Islam: poll

Rasa - Younger Americans are the most likely to have positive views on Islam, be interested in learning about the religion and have Muslim friends a recent poll shows.

News ID: 2321

Date: 11 April 2015 - 12:03

RNA - The survey, conducted March 5 through March 9 among 1,000 U.S by HuffPost/YouGov poll shows that the Younger Americans are the most likely to have positive views on Islam or be interested in learning about the religion.

According to the poll, while 74% of Americans have never experienced working with a Muslim, 68% of them have never had a Muslim friend and 87% of the participants have never been inside a mosque, the results show that around 39% of Americans are interested in learning more about Islam and 17% of them are not sure.

On 22nd of January, Iran’s supreme leader wrote an open letter to the American and European youth asking them to "try to gain a direct and firsthand knowledge of Islam."

According to HuffPost poll, while a majority of the participants had negative views, few seemed to base those judgements on knowledge or on relationships with Muslims.

HuffPost Religion associate editor Antonia Blumberg said: “The bottom line is, too many Americans have never even (consciously) met a Muslim person,” adding “They have no context for understanding the faith outside of what's in the news.”

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