June 4, 2009
Americans 'negative' about Muslims
by Rob Reynolds
Al Jazeera English
As Barack Obama, the US president, seeks to mend the image of the US in the Muslim world, a new survey indicates almost half of Americans have a negative opinion about Muslim countries.
The 46 per cent of respondents who held an unfavourable view of Islamic nations was up five per cent from 2002, while just 20 per cent said they held a positive opinion.
"It's pretty difficult to think much about folks that are seriously trying to kill us or kill anybody who doesn't believe the way they do; so, I am not very happy with those folks," Chuck Hauptman, a Billings, Montana resident, told Al Jazeera recently.
Greg Smith, a researcher with the Pew Forum on Religion in Washington, says most Americans' views of Muslims are heavily influenced by what they see on television and read in newspapers.
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