Muslims Rapidly Adopt U.S. Social Values

Concerns about Muslim assimilation made news again this week when Donald Trumperroneouslyclaimed that U.S. Muslim neighbors failed to report the San Bernardino shooters. But this persistent idea that U.S. Muslims are not assimilating could not be more inaccurate. In fact, U.S. Muslims —81 percent of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants —are the most socially liberal and religiously tolerant in the world and becoming more so with each passing year.U.S. Muslims Are Adopting Americans ’ Liberal Social and Religious ViewsMore than 80 percent of Muslim Americans are immigrants or the children of immigrants, according to thePew Research Center ’s 2014 survey. The large majority of these are immigrants whoarrived since 1990. Figure 1 provides the countries of origin for U.S. Muslim immigrants. The fact that Muslim Americans are dominated by immigrants could lead to the conclusion that the views of Muslim Americans will reflect the views of Muslims worldwide. But this is not the case. They are rapidly adopting American social views and liberalizing their religious views to accommodate.Figure 1: Countries of Origin for Muslim Immigrants (2014)Source: Pew (2011)As an example, the vast majority of Muslims around the world are fiercely opposed to homosexuality. Worldwide, the average country-level support across 39 countries is just 5 percent with 80 percent opposed. Yet as Figure 2 shows, in the United States in 2011, 45 percent of U.S. Muslims considered homosexuality ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs