Pride and prejudice: the context of reception for Muslims in the United States

Public opinion surveys suggest that Americans increasingly have negative perceptions of Muslims especially following the tragic attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11. The widespread negative attitudes towards Muslims suggest potential challenges for Muslim immigrants' integration into American society. Drawing from theory and prior research on prejudice and using data from the nationally representative Religion and Diversity Survey, this study uncovers variation in prejudice towards Muslims in the United States. Specifically, this study investigates whether nativist attitudes towards immigrants – such as beliefs that nothing in other countries can beat the American way of life, immigrants are a threat to traditional American values and immigrants should give up their foreign ways and learn to be like other Americans – fear of terrorism and contact with Muslims can account for the prejudice against Muslims in the United States. The findings suggest that strongest predictor of prejudice towards Muslims is not the fear of terrorism, but nativist attitudes towards immigrants and lack of contact with Muslims.