WASHINGTON
– - A survey of Muslim voters in six states has found one surprising result:
Donald Trump was the most popular Republican presidential candidate, despite
his calls for tighter surveillance of Muslims and limits on Muslim immigration.
The poll, not unexpectedly, found that 67 percent of the respondents support
the Democratic Party and 51 percent of them plan to vote for former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders trailed with 22 percent.
But of the 15 percent who said they intended to vote for Republicans, Trump was
the first choice, with more than 7 percent of the total. More than 73 percent
of respondents said they plan to vote in their states’ primary elections, an
increase from the 69 percent who answered that way in a similar survey taken
before the 2014 midterm elections. Blackberry Display Picture, Find Here!
The survey, which was commissioned by the
Council on American Islamic Relations and carried out Jan. 26, comprised
interviews with 2,000 registered Muslim voters in California, Florida,
Illinois, New York, Texas and Virginia - the states with the largest Muslim
populations in the United States. The council did not identify the “independent
automated call service provider” that undertook the survey. Robert McCaw, the
council’s government affairs manager, suggested that the increase in
respondents who said they planned to vote was likely “driven, at least in part,
by concern over the rise” in anti-Muslim rhetoric since terrorist attacks late
last year in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. About 30 percent of the
respondents said “Islamaphobia” was their No. 1 concern. The economy and health
care ranked No. 2 and No. 3. Despite the concern over anti-Muslim feelings,
Trump was the most popular of the Republicans among the respondents - even with
his calls for closing down mosques, monitoring Muslims and barring them from
immigrating to the United States. Support for other Republicans was negligible:
Ted Cruz received 2 percent, Jeb Bush 1.57 percent and Rand Paul, Ben Carson,
Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina each received less than 1 percent. Ibrahim
Hooper, the council’s director of communications, called the Trump result
puzzling. “It is not unusual to find Muslim Republicans, because the two are
similarly socially conservative,” he said. “But at a time when anti-Muslim
rhetoric and bigotry is being spewed by Republicans, it is rather unusual.”
Hooper, however, said it was possible that the Trump supporters were unaware of
the candidate’s anti-Islam stands.
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