Poll: Less Believe Islam Encourages Violence More Than Other Religions

The percentage of U.S. voters who believe Islam, as practiced today, encourages violence more than other religions has dropped to 41 percent from the 52 percent who thought that way in January 2015, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey released on Tuesday.

In the most recent poll, 41 percent also disagreed with the assessment that Islam encourages violence more than other religions, while 18 percent were undecided.

However, 75 percent of likely voters agree that Islamic religious leaders need to do more to emphasize the peaceful beliefs of their faith, while 11 percent disagreed and 14 percent were unsure.

Other results from the survey showed:

• An overwhelming majority of 87 percent consider the ISIS terrorist group a serious threat to the United States, while 69 percent said the organization must be destroyed in order to end its terrorist activities.
• Fifty-eight percent of all voters believe that the United States is at war with radical Islamic terrorism.
• Among Republicans, 59 percent say that Islam encourages violence more than other religions, while 56 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of unaffiliated voters say it does not.
• Among Republicans, 83 percent agree that Islamic religious leaders need to do more to stress the peaceful beliefs of their faith, which is a view shared by 66 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of those who are not affiliated with either major party.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on May 23 to 24. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.

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