It's Just A Tiny Minority Of People Who Don't Want To Live In The Modern World

Overall, Muslim Americans have a generally positive view of the larger
society. Most say their communities are excellent or good places to
live.

A large majority of Muslim Americans believe that hard work pays
off in this society. Fully 71% agree that most people who want to get ahead in
the U.S. can make it if they are willing to work hard.

The survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers
to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. On balance, they
believe that Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs,
rather than trying to remain distinct from the larger society. And by nearly
two-to-one (63%-32%) Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a
devout Muslim and living in a modern society.

Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do
Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely
condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.

A majority of Muslim Americans (53%) say it has become more
difficult to be a Muslim in the U.S. since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Most
also believe that the government “singles out” Muslims for increased
surveillance and monitoring.

Relatively few Muslim Americans believe the U.S.-led war on terror
is a sincere effort to reduce terrorism, and many doubt that Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Just 40% of Muslim Americans say groups of Arabs carried out those attacks.