Americans believe that protecting the religious freedom of Christians is more important than protecting the rights of any other faith group, with Muslims ranked as the least deserving of protection, according to a new AP/NORC poll.
While a solid majority of respondents said it is extremely or very important to preserve religious freedom in general, the percentages diverged dramatically when asked about the rights of specific faiths, reported The Hill.
Eighty-two percent said that it is important for the U.S. to protect the religious liberty of Christians, but only 61 percent said that Muslims should also be protected. Some 70 percent said that Jews should be protected, while 67 percent said the same for Mormons. As for those who have no religion, 63 percent said that they deserve protection to live out their beliefs, according to AP.
Even across party lines, large majorities on the left and right believe that Christians deserve more protection than Muslims. Eighty-eight percent of Republicans said that it is critical to preserve the rights of Christians, while 60 percent said the same for Muslims. Among Democrats, 83 percent said that Christians should have protection, compared to 67 percent who said that Muslims deserve protection.
"Religious freedom is now in the eye of the beholder," Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute, told AP. "People in different traditions, with different ideological commitments, define religious liberty differently."
Eric Rassbach, a lawyer for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told AP that "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."
He continued: "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 poll of 1,042 adults was conducted Dec. 10-13, after Islamic extremists carried out attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., The Washington Free Beacon noted. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
