According to a new survey, most Americans prioritize on preserving the religious freedom of Christians than any other religious denomination, in effect ranking Muslims as the least deserving of similar protections. Solid majorities claimed it was very or extremely important for the United States to uphold religious freedom in general. However, there was no consistency in the percentages when respondents were questioned about particular faith groups.

The poll, conducted jointly by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 82 percent Americans believe religious liberty protections are important for Christians while only 61 percent believe the same for Muslims. Approximately, seven in 10 Americans said that religious liberty protections should be offered to Jews as opposed to 67 percent who said the same with regards to Mormons. Individuals who associate themselves with no particular religion were ranked the same as Muslims in needing support to practice their beliefs.

Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Freedom Center of Newseum Institute, said the findings underline deep rifts among Americans about the very definition of religious liberty that has acquired a newly politicized meaning over time.

“Religious freedom is now in the eye of the beholder,” Haynes said. “People in different traditions, with different ideological commitments, define religious freedom differently.”

This survey was conducted from December 10 to 14, after the Islamic State carried out carefully orchestrated terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino late last year. This was around the same time that Republican candidate Donald Trump and other nominations were using anti-Muslim rhetoric for their presidential campaigns.

In the survey, 88 percent Republicans claimed it was more important to secure the religious liberty of Christians as opposed to only 60 percent that said the same about Muslims. Democrats also ranked religious freedom for Muslims a less important concern, with 83 percent rooting for Christians and a mere 67 percent doing so for those abiding by Islam.

A similar survey by Pew Research Center, which was conducted last year, found that a growing number of Americans believe Islam encourages violence among its adherents more frequently and more aggressively than other religions.

“These numbers seem to be part of a growing climate of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States,” said Madihha Ahussain, an attorney for Muslim Advocates, a California-based civil rights group. “This climate of hatred has contributed to dozens of incidents of anti-Muslim violence in recent weeks.”

Helen Decker, a 65-year-old Christian living in West Texas, was of the opinion that religious freedom must be offered to individuals of all faiths and even those with no faith in particular. During her interview, she also mentioned her grandson, who happens to be an atheist. However, she changed her stance while talking of Muslims, saying believers of Islam should be granted similar religious liberty protections only under certain circumstances, where they can prove that they are not radical.

“Muslims — they need to be protected just like Christians, unless they pose harm to human life,” Decker said.

John Ashford from Chicago, a retired war veteran, said it was wrong to deny religious liberty protections to Muslims. He critiqued that officials have been offering too much leeway to Christians for nothing but political mileage, something that he considers a threat to the separation of church and state.

“There's supposed to be equal protection under the law — that's what the Constitution says,” he said. “If you're not doing that, you're doing something wrong.”

Last year, a public debate about religious freedom focused primarily on the demand for government accommodation of those who oppose same-sex marriage. That too was legalized nationwide in June. Individuals who object accommodation of religious objections to same-sex marriage believe that such exemptions are being made to undermine the newly sanctioned rights of the LGBT community. Yet, those advocating for broad exemptions, including Southern Baptist leaders and Roman Catholic bishops in the United States, claim that their demands are in keeping with America’s longstanding tradition of securing individual conscience. 

Greg Scott of Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian public interest law firm, said, “A focus on protecting Christians right now makes sense in that Christians today are facing mounting threats to their religious liberty by acts of state officials and bureaucrats.”

The AP-NORC survey also found waning confidence in the American administration’s defense of religious liberty, with an appalling 75 percent saying enough was being done in 2011 and a meager 55 percent saying the same last month. In this survey, as many as eight in 10 Americans said that it was extremely or very important for individuals like themselves to be allowed to freely practice their religion.

Eric Rassbach, attorney with Becket Fund for Religious Liberty –a public interest law firm that takes clients of all faiths– said, “People may not realize you cannot have a system where there's one rule for one group and another rule for a different group you don't like… No religion is an island… If somebody else's religion is being limited by the government, yours is liable to be limited in the same way. Even if you only care about your own particular group, you should care about other groups, too, because that's the way the law works.”

The recent AP-NORC survey, comprising 1,042 adults, was carried out online as well as via phone, with the help of a sample drawn from the latter’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel that is supposed to be representative of America’s population. The margin of sampling error for all those who participated was plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

Photo Credits: The Olive Branch Report