I am a kippa (skullcap) wearing Jew. I meet Muslim neighbors, co-workers, parents at my kids' playgroup, and in many other settings. Generally everyone is friendly and kind and there is no tension. Perhaps those who see every Muslim or Jew through the lens of Middle East politics have a hard time making friends with the "opposite side". But in my experience, most of my interactions with Muslim friends and acquaintances are pleasant and tension-free.
55
No surprises here. Except.... if "nativists" and Republicans dislike Muslims even more than Jews, what accounts for the disparity in religious hate crimes? Remembering that both Jews and Muslims each account for only 2-3% of the population, there are about 4x as many hate crimes against Jews every year. Before 9/11 nearly 80% of the religious hate crimes were against Jews and only 5% against Muslims. And add in that hate crimes against Jews are close to doubling since Trump took office, but I have not seen that statistic for Muslims.
Obama in particular spent a lot of effort, and liberals in general did, to befriend and protect Muslims since 9/11, but not so for the Jews.
In 2016, Bernie Sanders almost religiously excluded Jews from his list of oppressed peoples who warranted advocacy and protection.
So the polling shows attitudes, but it seems there is a difference between attitudes and actions when it comes to Jews and Muslims. The hatred towards Jews is visceral on many college campuses, where Muslims are treated with the greatest kindness. Just saying.
20
@Miriam The anti-jewish campaigns on campuses have been funded by the Saudi's for 30 years.
Jews had better start thinking about self defense
9
@Miriam
In my opinion, the disparity in hate crime attacks on Jews than Muslims because, in the USA, Jews are a very successful and visible. If you asked the average American to name an American Jewish person, it would be easy. Many people could name a dozen Jewish celebrities or more in 5 seconds. Alternatively, if you asked the average American to name a famous American Muslim, few would be able answer. Jew hatred in America is easy because Jews are very visible.
3
I am not an American Jew, I am a Jewish American. I am an American who happens to be ethnically Jewish. I am not a Jew who happens to live in the United States.
I will certainly stand with anyone, including Muslims, who are being persecuted or treated unfairly in the US.
But there is no way I am allying myself with religious fundamentalist, anti-Jewish and anti-American people who also want to destroy the Jewish state because I want some special protection for being jewish or because Republicans are 10% less likely to say protecting Jews is important, or because nativists hate both Jews and Muslims. These are completely nonsensical reasons to formulate any political alliances.
We should not give in to this mentality of identity politics. I do not associate with people based on whether I share their ethnic background or whether they are "allies". Definitely do not associate with people because their group and my group are hated by the same idiots.
I associate with people from highly diverse backgrounds and from all over the world who love the US, who love and jealously want to protect the freedoms of our advanced, evolved western and 1st world societies, who believe in human rights, civil liberty, freedom of thought and expression, secularized government, etc. etc. Those are my allies. And that group includes truly liberal (not leftist) Muslims and ex-Muslims. But it doesn't include people like Omar or Tlaib or Soursar.
10
Except that some Muslims, Ilhan Omar, for one, support the destruction of the State of Israel, which is what her support of BDS shows.
So, not so fast.
6
It's infuriating to me the people keep bringing up "the Jews wont replace us" mantra of those white racist in Charleston when I can think over a half dozen off the top of my head protests put on by Muslim, Black and Hispanic groups whose antiJewish rhetoric was actually significantly worse. All these happened within the last 5 years and all of them were either openly condone or just ignored by the same people who run around like a chicken with its head cut off over every slight committed by right-wing racist.
5
The only commonality between jews and muslims is that they are hated by the same GOP goobers.
Otherwise - without law enforcement - we would see what we see in europe. Muslims attacking jews.
As long as you're talking about polling, it would be helpful to know that 30% of the worlds muslims (see Pew) support terror is some or many forms. That's over 300 million terror supporters.
ANd stop giving arabs "excuses" for hating jews. There is no occupied Palestinian land. The west bank was jordan and the gaza strip was Egypt.
Any "palestinian lands" were taken and occupied by arabs in 48. They didn't become "palestinian" until Israel captured them
5
As an American Muslim, I have found common ground with American Jews (and Christians and atheists and any other group you can think of) over shared universal values of generosity, kindness, support in times of distress and sharing in the joys and sorrows of everyday life in all its absurdities. Yes, Nativists hate us but I believe in returning hate with empathy. Polls have shown that Americans who don't know a single Muslim have negative feelings about them but a single encounter with a Muslim neighbor or
co-worker can transform negative feelings into positive feelings. I will not give up on anyone, be they Nativists or fanatics (and they come from all groups, Muslims definitely included), without at least having a conversation, preferably over a meal, with any of my fellow-Americans. After that, if darkness still persists, so be it, but I will never give up hope that perhaps there will be light in a single heart-to-heart encounter.
41
@Hasan Z Rahim
Well put sir!
As an American Jew, I share your beliefs & understanding towards our fellow human beings, no matter their background or place of origin.
When people are taught to fear those who are different, they grow up with a skewed sense of reality. The only way to know another person is to spend time with them & learn about them.
We create our own barriers to others getting to know us as much as we run into barriers placed there by strangers who fear the unknown, especially about people from different cultural or ethnic origins.
We Americans need to recognize that we are unique since we are a nation of multi-cultural/ethnic origins bound together by a National Ideology which is defined to surpass standard ethnic & cultural histories.
Each "group" adds to the fabric of this great country, enriching us all.
Americans who cannot or will not embrace our differences as benefits for all, don't really understand the beauty & meaning of what it is to be an American.
But we must continue to try to reach them since their uniqueness is also part of the same fabric which binds our people into one country.
Muslims & Jews share a rich history & many beliefs which stem from a common starting point.
While it is common to say we are all brothers & sisters. Muslims & Jews are truly cousins.
Here in America, there are those who hate both of us out of ignorance. We need not abide by their hatred. We can share our love, united by mutual understanding & purpose.
12
Dear @Lester Arditty,
Your sentiments are what make me so proud to be an American! Your words resonate with me because I feel the way you do, and I try to follow up my words with action as best as I can, as I know you do too. Just this last weekend I, and members of my mosque, the Evergreen Islamic Center in San Jose, CA, attended a Climate Fair at the Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos, CA. We learned so much, and were so excited to be a part of the movement to reverse the catastrophic man-made climate change that threaten our extinction! Building alliances and sharing common ground to spur action in the right direction - and that includes talking with those who may even passionately hate us - that's what makes us human, after all. Your support and words of encouragement have made my day, sir! Shalom!
7
@Hasan Z Rahim
Shalom, Salaam Hasan,
I, too, totally endorse your position. When my daughter was studying for her PhD in Near Eastern Studies, our home was a home away from home for many of her friends from Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and East Jerusalem. I consider them all my friends. She even studied Arabic at the Palestinian University in Bir Zeit near Ramalla. She lived with an Arab family there and was treated very well. Rest assured that if you're ever here in Queens, you are welcome to join us at any time.
Dana Johnston, MD
6
Bonding over a common enemy (the right) is a weak way to sweep under the table that much anti-Jewish violence is not coming from the alt-right.
The sentence that people like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are criticized "as anti-Semitic because of their positions on United States policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" is Example A of this delusion. They don't judge their own demographics or speak of them in the same contemptuous way as they do Jews. They don't denounce the wrongs of their own demographics like they do Jews. It's the equivalent of saying Trump supporters who chanted "send her back" are vilified "as racist and xenophobic because of their positions on United States policy toward Somalia and immigration". Ilhan Omar said she wanted to talk about the meddling or foreign lobbyists in US politics. But she shills for CAIR. And she calls people racist for not kowtowing to the illegal immigration lobby. If this constant singling out Israel wasn't based on bigotry why are Muslim and illegal lobby groups not only not condemned by Omar and Tlaib, but actually supported by them?
7
Will this data be published? Already there are comments debating the validity of the results.
2
This is a perfect example of the misuse of valid data to drive a simplistic and skewed narrative. Sure, right-wing antisemitism is real. So is Islamist antisemitism. The world is not neatly divided into black and white, and sometimes the enemy of your enemy is also your enemy. The fact that nativists dislike Muslims does not make Muslims more inclined to like Jews. Let-wing antisemitism is just as destructive as its right-wing counterpart: just ask Jeremy Corbyn. So it is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. It is possible for me, a Jew, to oppose both nativism and the Squad. And I do.
9
The common antagonist is the foundation of both religions: the false notion of god. One's fictional god must be superior or more real than the other's fictional god. Hence why Jews and Muslims will never agree.
2
@JCX
In fact Jews and Muslims have peacefully coexisted in many societies over the centuries.
1
Agreed.
Peace, a two state solution, and a firm return to social democracy will be in the best interest of both groups, who have demonstrated that they can live side by side, regardless of religious differences. Nativism is Nationalism, so really, really stupid, and counter productive.
I fully agree that American nativists are a major threat to both Jews and Muslims. It is also true that they have been attracted to Trump and represent a major portion of his political support. I find it sad that many Jews do not see through Trump's nativism.
The mutual antagonism between Arabs and Jews in Israel is a major reason many Jews do not feel they share common cause with Muslims. The alliance of Trump and Netanyahu has strongly reinforced that position. The law pushed by Netanyahu in Israel that declares Israel the "Nation-State of the Jewish People" is a form of nativist legislation that seeks to exclude Non-Jews as true natives of Israel, even though their families may have lived there for many generations.
Many Jews see Trump's support for Netanyahu and contempt for Palestinians as support for Jews. This is totally false. Trump does not support traditional Jewish values of social justice and opposes the liberality that has empowered American Jews. The fact that Trump and Netanyahu are soul-mates does not make Trump a friend of the Jews.
1
Antisemites and racists are a core part of Trump support. There is now data. 77% of strong nativists voted for Trump (3% for Clinton). .77 x 40 million = 31 out of 63 m votes for Trump in 2016. About 50% of Trump’s base is racist. Wow!
The numbers are from the article:
"Our survey research, however, indicates that the biggest threat to the rights of the Jewish people comes from homegrown American nativists. These people dislike all manner of groups they view as foreign to this country and our research shows that they are even more vehemently opposed to Muslims than they are to Jews. American Jews and American Muslims thus have a common adversary who are to be found, for the most part, among Mr. Trump’s most committed supporters.
"Just how many nativists are there in America, and where do they cluster, politically speaking? Our calculations suggest that just over 20 percent of the adult population in the United States is made up of strong nativists — that’s roughly 40 million people. Seven percent of them identify as Democrats, 50 percent identify as Republicans and 34 percent identify as independents. Sixty-four percent of the strong nativists in our sample said that they had voted for Mr. Trump in the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential primaries. Seventy-seven percent of the strong nativists in our sample reported that they voted for Mr. Trump in the 2016 general election, compared with 3 percent for Hillary Clinton."
2
3 or 4 years ago, I participated in an interfaith fellowship sponsored by the 2 local Conservative synagogues and 3 local mosques. Every 4 to 6 weeks we'd meet, socialize, have dinner, and hear presentations from each of the religious leaders. Tables were assigned so that equal numbers of Muslims and Jews sat at each table. Topics emphasized the common heritage between Islam and Judaism. It was very clear early on that these Muslims looked to Jews as role models for their integration into American society. I was very disappointed when the group did not continue to meet after the summer hiatus. When asked, our Rabbi indicated the Muslims did not want to continue the dialogue. He indicated he believed they thought we were too secular and assimilated. They wanted integration but feared assimilation.
6
American Muslims have not yet tried to make common cause with American Jews to counter the nativist hate groups even though they have joined in the condemnation of violent acts committed by nativists against Jews.
Perhaps that is because a large number of American Jews support Israel's occupation of Palestine and continue to support the unfair treatment of Palestinians both in the Occupied territories and within Israel itself.
As long as Zionism continues to be a guiding principle for Jews, whether in America or elsewhere, Muslims and others the world over who have suffered from colonization will find it hard to join hands with them in resistance and protest.
10
@Meenal Mamdani
Thank you for your honesty.
@Meenal Mamdani
Not so!! Most US Jews DO NOT SUPPORT OCCUPATION AND WANT A TWO-STATE SOLUTION.
2
@Meenal Mamdani
I am surprised that you have not anticipated and addressed the logical response to your post, which is that Muslims do not need Jews to experience colonization.
And why is it that terrorism is synonymous with Muslims--"the world over[?]"
6
This survey and subsequent analysis does not change the realities that Democratic Party is now the home anti-Semites and no longer a strong supporter of Israel. It also ignores that fact that a vote for Hillary was a vote for not just corrupt politician who sold her office while Secretary of State and used the Clinton Foundation to enrich herself, Bill, Chelsea, and her sycophants.
6
@Stanz
I disagree. Trump has found a soulmate in Netanyahu. That doesn't make him a friend of the Jews. It's not possible to cherish Jewish values of social justice and not be repelled by Netanyahu's treatment of Arabs in Judea and Samara or his declaring Israel the Nation-State of the Jewish People. essentially establishing Arab Israelis as 2nd Class Citizens.
Trump rejects the prophets and the Torah which calls on us to "love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt". It's true that criticism of Israeli policy is often rooted in antisemitism, but it is also clear that many, if not most Israelis criticize Israeli policy. "The world rests on 3 words, torah, prayer, and deeds of loving kindness." Which of those 3 pillars does Trump support.
2
Don't know how they conducted their poll but down here in Georgia most Republicans say they love "the Jews" as they call them. And they love Israel too.
The way they see it is Muslims hate Jews and Jews hate Muslims so therefore if Republicans hate Muslims then they have to love Jews. Get it?
Come down here and talk to a real Republican and they will explain it to you.
2
This should surprise no one.....The chants "Jews will not replace us" hardly came from the lefties did they.
4
This article fails to even attempt a fair evaluation of individual rights. It assumes that it is somehow significant that group rights for people with Jewish or Muslim have a legitimate right to have some type of consideration of their rights because of the group they are in. No one would raise this point for other people with different or mixed ancestries, e.g., English,Scottish, Irish, Vietnamese, Italian various Eastern European nationalities. No group in the United States is, or should, be entitled rights because of ancestries. All people are entitled to the same rights. All Americans also have the right to dislike anyone or group that they do not find attractive. I am much more concerned with how group rights are undercutting the rights of ordinary people who have disadvantages. In south eastern Michigan there are people who live in older houses that still have oil burning stoves for heat. Why should a poor white boy who may have elements of several nationalities in his history have any rights that are different from Jews, Muslims or any one else? Why is a person labeled nativist for saying that rights of anyone else in a different group need special attention. Categorizing people by groups is a profoundly bad policy in a large country like ours. Group rights should be abolished where they exist. Rights should not be turned into group privileges for some people. It is a national tragedy that our government even keeps records based on group identity.
7
'Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of GOD.'
I'm a Jew from Texas, a red state that is by no means 'hollowed out'. My family came here in 1685; my ancestor fought with General Washington against the British; we helped build this country as farmers, ranchers, and teachers throughout the Westward Expansion. My grandfather was gassed by the Kaiser's generals on the fields of France as part of the AEF, my father starved as an Allied airman POW in a German prison camp fighting Hitler; my grandmother walked to Texas behind a covered wagon. What part of "REAL American" don't nativists understand?
21
@Comp The part where the GOP embraces Neo Nazis. KKK'ers and the rest.
You want to be accepted? don't hold your breath.
you want to be safe - arm yourself
1
I'm surprised that you went to all this trouble to investigate an issue where the situation was obvious to anyone.
If 20% of the US population are "strong nativists", what percent might be considered "moderate nativists"? Might we assume that another 30% of the population fit into the "sorta racist" category? If this is the case then half the country is racist, or has racist tendencies. It doesn't bode well for our future, especially at a time when our Democratic institutions are unable to check the abuses of the "Nativist in Chief", Donald Trump.
1
Since when has American Jewish community talked about "protecting Jewish rights?" This is modern identity politics jargon that upsets conservatives, who see it as a demand for special preferences to redress past grievances. Jews have rarely if ever spoken of "Jewish rights" or demanded preferences; only a freedom from discrimination. The authors' biased question was designed to push the hot buttons of conservative voters who oppose group preferences, equating such a position with racism. Both Jews and Muslims are best advised to avoid phony survey findings designed to promote a political agenda.
12
Both groups should stop leveraging American politics for their Middle Eastern agendas. It is deceitful and unpatriotic.
6
The problem with the survey, which might be addressed in the full report but not here, is that the question about protecting the "rights of Jews abroad" lumps Jews in all places abroad from all violators in one category. For certain populations, if you ask about protecting Jews in Bavaria from Skinheads you will probably get a different answer than if you ask about protecting Jews in Ashkelon from Hamas.
A broader problem is that Democrats want for the Arabs in the southwest Levant to be able to live like Jews in America whereas Republicans are less concerned. Supporters of Israel mostly do not object to the Democrats' aims, but also refuse to be blind to the Arabs' attempts to force the Jews in Israel the way Jews lived in 19th century Palestine. Too many Democrats see only the Palestinians' abject living standards and, largely driven by the likes of Omar and Tlaib who wish to justify reimposing the 19th century conditions on the Jews in the southwest Levant, refuse to see the conditions that leave Israel no alternative.
4
The survey results seem to confirm what is obvious from following the news. Trump is clearly enabling a white Christian nationalist movement which includes his most loyal supporters. American Jews need to align not just with Muslims but with all minority groups including blacks, Hispanics, Asian, etc. because ultimately they are or potentially will be targets of the nativists. Regardless of the the conflict in the Middle East between Jews and Arabs it is paramount for American Jews to focus on the fate of Jews in America and that means working with Muslims against the growing threat of white Christian nationalists.
2
Being anti-Muslim in the GOP is a way to burnish one's party, religious and patriotic cred. They've also tried to parlay Islamophobia as being pro-Jewish, which of course it is not. I think most people know where the majority of anti-Semitism comes from in the U.S., but I applaud this study because it is needed in response to a bigoted propaganda campaign coming from the White House.
5
I can believing this quote. "Religion does three things quite effectively: divides people, controls people. deludes people."
3
This article seems to be designed to fan the flames of polarization for political purposes once again, As we all know Donald Trump has been the best American president for Israel and it is the left that has been causing the division for the pure partisan purpose of getting votes.
1
Republicans and Trumpettes need to either “love it or leave it!” Conservative’s routinely appear to dislike America’s, Freedom of Religion and Separation of Church and State. They dislike ‘the media,’ in other words, “Free Press.” They dislike NFL players “taking a knee” in protest during the National Anthem.
If you dislike these things so much, move to Iran! Stop trying to ruin my country! America has a Constitution; I recommend you actually read what it says. If you so strongly object to so many of America’s Founding Principles and Values, move to somewhere else. Love it or leave it!
1
Apart from the notorious unreliability of such surveys, where the framing of questions predetermines outcomes, the authors engage in a meretricious fallacy. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend. To be sure, white nationalists/nativists dislike both Jews and Muslims. That tells us next to nothing about deep seated problematics of Jewish-Muslim relations. If anything, the two groups are increasingly hostile to each other, a trend that is only likely to get worse if Israel continues to follow the lead of Netanyahu, while here at home the new Muslim congressional representatives and their allies repeatedly cross the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. No sociological survey research can sugarcoat that palpable fact.
4
It is no surprise that people on the far right are not big fans of Jews or Muslims.
So what was the point of running this piece?
Was it to try to prove that the far right is more anti-Semitic than the far left? Is this an attempt at combating Bari Weiss' new book that focuses in part on anti-Semisim on the left?
The authors should keep in mind that this is not a contest. Hate is hate. It is bad no matter where it comes from, and it comes from both sides!
7
Divide, divert and conquer, a tried and trusted formula for tyrants throughout history. Nothing new. Why people can't see through it is what astounds me; however, as Lincoln said you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time. I know the rest, but tyrants don't need to fool all the people all the time, just enough people to take over. This has led to the downfall of all democracies throughout history so far.
1
Both Jews and Muslims should be concerned that Trump is not making dealing with white nationalist terrorism a higher priority. It has become clear from posts on social media that there is an international network of white nationalist terrorists. And they use some of the same rhetoric as Trump such as calling nonwhite immigrants an "invasion" or an "infestation." Trump uses these terms to create fear and it works on many people. And certainly Jews and Muslims should work together with Christians who oppose white Christian nationalism. Not only Trump but an extensive right wing media is churning out misinformation to create fear in white Christians about nonwhites and Jews. Trying to set the record straight as much as possible should be common goal of Jews and Muslims.
11
First off, let's not call them "nativists" since they're not natives and have no claim as such; they, too, are immigrants. If you want to be more factual, you could call them "anti-immigrant immigrants."
Second, uniting American Jews and Muslims against a common "antagonist," while understandable on the surface, is not as durable as uniting them based on mutual respect; the former is only good as as long as there's a common antagonist, while the latter is lasting. Our efforts should be aimed toward the latter.
6
They did not have to take a poll and do a statistical analysis to prove the obvious.
Asking people who believe that whites are vulnerable (whom the authors define as “nativist”) whether minorities need more protection is like asking people who believe in climate change whether they also believe that we need stricter limits on carbon emissions.
It’s hardly a surprise that they found a correlation.
6
There is something quite surreal about the fights that humanity is cruelly indulging in when the entire planet is rapidly progressing towards the total destruction of civilization through ecological degradation when only total unity of our species is the prime necessity to save all our lives. Somehow Darwin’s notion of the survival of the fittest comes to mind.
9
Right off the bat I could see that this article was a partisan attack rather than an honest effort. To say that President Trump is stoking hatred between American Jews and Muslims by pointing out the obvious anti-Semitism of Tlaib and Omar is a dishonest exercise. The authors ignore Omar's statement about Jewish support being "about the Benjamins," an ugly old scurrilous lie about corrupt Jews and bribery. Their attachment to the BDS movement which denies Israel's right to exist is also anti-Semitic. President Trump may be a lot of things, with divisive being the least of them, but Omar and Tlaib earn the title of anti-semites through their own work and without his help.
50
@Jack19 You are comparing not apples and oranges, but blueberries and watermelons in terms of influence and impact.
5
@Jack19
Don't agree. Like most other American Jews, I'd rather vote for Tlaib than Trump.
Trump and other simple-minded people confuse not liking the current Israeli policies with being anti-Semitic. Just confusing the two is itself anti-Semitic.
I don't like AIPAC and have never given them a dime. It is a little too similar to Hezbollah...which I would also never give a dime to.
I would be willing to support a one state solution, if both Palestinian and Jewish rights were protected. I would be willing to support a two state solution with 1967 boundaries and small adjustments that are paid for house by house at full-market value. (Larger blocks would just become Jewish neighborhoods in Palestine or Arab neighborhoods in Israel.)
I would help encourage support and defuse opposition to either solution by offering American citizenship to Palestinians and Israelis who don't like it...so long as they have no terrorist background.
I would guess Tlaib would be closer to me on all three ideas than Trump.
8
@Jack19
It is very, very hard to take comments like yours as presented in good faith. The world is full of bad-faith arguments about BDS, the potent role of organizations like AIPAC and people like Sheldon Adelson have in American politics, or the role that dollars play in defining US policy –regardless of where the money comes from.
It is simply in conservative political interests to conflate any criticism of Israel and anti-semitism. And it is always, perpetually in the interests of reactionary politicians to marginalize new minority groups like Muslims.
10
American Jews and American Muslims are doing just fine and in perfect harmony with the rest of Americans. Yes there are extremists nativists, but they are minute minority. I vigorously disagree with the authors Ron and Levine from University of Minnesota that homegrown nativists strongly dislike Jews and Muslims. I am aware that in Minnesota due to massive influx of refugees in their state there is some resentment brewing. On the whole America has greater interfaith harmony and mutual understanding. Every American first and foremost is focused on their goals, their American dream. and caring for their loved ones that they do not have time to dislike innocent people of other religions.
I would like the authors to experience the America I know where people of all faith get along very well in trying to stay healthy and well. An outstanding example of interfaith harmony is the young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) where Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Bahaii, Buddists, all interact and talk to each other without prejudice, malice and dislike.
4
@Girish Kotwal Your anecdotal experience is not necessarily contradictory to the larger-scale statistical data presented in the article. Both can be simultaneously true.
4
@Girish Kotwal, Sorry Girish. Religion does three things quite effectively: divides people, controls people, deludes people.
1
I honestly don't believe americans understand how polling works.
Of coursse that goes along with everything else americans don't understand.
Math, science, economics, biology, history, and every other field with a basis in facts and figures, are mysteries to americans
8
@shrinking food You mean "...Americans, except for me."
1
"nativism, defined here as a belief in prioritizing the rights and needs of white, Christian Americans"
Isn't our willingness to accept this definition exactly the problem? The point of America is that we are all natives or none of us are natives. Willingness by the authors, whatever their personal beliefs and whatever the conventional term of art in their academic field, to use this nomenclature reinforces the idea that white Christians have a greater claim to the blessings of liberty that our nation provides.
1
@Ed Arguing about the label is specious. Change the label to "foo" if you wish, and the rest of the article is unchanged - there is a too-large set of people who prioritize "the rights and needs of white, Christian America".
3
If this is really the language that the professors used, the survey questions are too broad to be meaningful. Do they intend to query participants about the rights of American Jews and Muslims to practice their religions? Or simple civil rights that are in play as we go through our lives as Americans? I am Jewish, and while I expect the same normal protection of my rights as anyone to walk down the street and go to work and take the subway without persecution, I don't expect any special protection because of my Jewishness. This is where identity politics meets and crashes into actual politics. We are all Americans. Theoretically we all share the same rights. When you start asking people about specific groups, you are very close to sliding down that slippery slope to victim glorification, the slippery slope that the Clinton campaign slid down in 2016. Divisiveness is not going to save our democracy, and identity politics is the worst form of divisiveness.
27
@RE Identity politics defined:
The GOP defines a powerless group and attacks it for any numbr of reasons
The democrats move to defend them
The GOP screams "identity politics'
I hope that helps
5
@shrinking food: I am not sure where your definition comes from. I can only speak for myself, but to that end identity politics is about prioritizing the issues and needs of a particular group, whether an ethnic, religious, racial or otherwise defined group, over the issues and needs of the wider group to which we all, as Americans, belong. I hope that helps.
2
Why did the authors of the study call this:
"a belief in prioritizing the rights and needs of white, Christian Americans."
"nativism" instead of "white supremacy?"
9
@Jeff
In a continuum of political opinion it would suggest that there are some who prioritize the rights of "Christians" or "Americans" more than that of "whites." While the overlap is bound to be significant nativism can be seen as more of a focus on the "American" than the "white" aspect.
3
@JeffIt is descriptive.
@Jeff I had the exact same thought and question. There can’t be a more twisted word for white supremacy than nativism. If this is white supremacist language why do the authors use it? Horrible!
Yes!
God!
The Almighty didn’t create the Judaism, the Christianity or the Islam but just the pure faith.
God didn’t create any tribe, language, culture, alphabet, calendar, personal names or the borders. The people did!
The Almighty prescribed peace, love, honesty, truth, hard work, morality, friendship and cooperation, not the wired borders, ethnic cleansing, bloodsheds, bombings and endless wars.
How come nobody has raised the voice against such distortion of the concept of faith?!
How did the faith get equated with any human state?
The states have been created by the people but the faith came from God…
2
American Jews and Muslims are target of white supremacists, KKK and extreme right wing Republicans. Whatever happens in the Middle East, we the Jews and Muslims in America should be together for our survival and our civil rights. Living in America, we have to work hard for ourselves and for the country and love everybody regardless of their religious beliefs, ethnic origin, color of skin, sexual orientation and political affiliation. Respect is mutual.
25
One problem for American Jews and Muslims is that Israel doesn't really care about American Jews, and Muslim nations don't really care about American Muslims--or any Muslims outside their own borders.
Witness the refusal of Israel's government to even admit that the Pittsburgh synagogue was a real synagogue. Witness Netanyahu cozying up to the worst anti-Semites in Europe.
Witness Saudi Arabia and the other Wahabbi Persian Gulf oil states turning a blind eye to China's persecution of the Uighurs. Witness them doing the same with Myanmar's genocide of its Rohingya Muslims.
Ironically, this gives American Jews the freedom to roundly criticize Israel, and American Muslims to roundly criticize supposedly-Muslim states. American Jews have more religious freedom here than in Israel. Try being a Reformed Jew in Israel. Your synagogues get torched...by ultra-Orthodox Jews incited by the ultra-Orthodox establishment that controls Jewish life in Israel.
American Muslims have more religious freedom here than in any supposed Muslim state. Try being a Sufi in Saudi Arabia. You get killed because the state views you as a fake Muslim and thus worse than an atheist.
While American Jews and Muslims have to contend with our own nativists, they do not have to worry about the American government attacking them as fake Jews or fake Muslims.
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Ergo, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Unless American Jews and American Muslims find a common middle ground on the ever-festering Israel-Palestine mess, such a basis for (however temporary) alliance is a pipe-dream. TG
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The situation is symmetric so far as disliking a group goes. Muslims and Jews belong to a culture that looks on nativists as illegitimate Americans.
Muslims and Jews dwell overwhelmingly in Blue America. Nativists are overwhelmingly in the Red states, the hollowed out interior, especially the extended Midwest from Appalachia to the Rockies.
Blue America considers the essence of its Red countrypeople to be racism: they are white racists who are resisting their inevitable eclipse by the advance of women and minorities.
Blues ignore the economic devastation of the Red region, hollowed out by the globalization of the last forty years. It might be mentioned that the other side of this Midwestern globalization disaster is much of the prosperity of the Coasts.
While denouncing Red culture for the nativism of considering themselves to be the Real Americans, Blues consider their Red opponents to be an embarrassment, an anachronism pitted against the progressive humanizing and inclusiveness of the advanced Coasts.
Which is to say that the Blues echo the Reds in looking on themselves as the Real Americans.
That is, Trump wasn't just elected by the Russians and their lavish $100,000 Facebook campaign, but also by us opioid-impaired hicks out in the obsolete wastelands which are technically still part of the country, unfortunately.
It's true nobody is proposing to exterminate Midwesterners. But then, nobody is proposing to exterminate Jews and Muslims, either.
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@alyosha
"Muslims and Jews belong to a culture that looks on nativists as illegitimate Americans." -- Are you suggesting that we should look at nativists positively? Why is economic devastation an excuse for turning to nativism?
And yes, people are proposing to exterminate us Jews and Muslims. The haters of one are generally also haters of the other.
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@alyosha
Excellent both-sides-do-it!
It's funny though - if nobody is proposing to exterminate Jews and Muslims, how do you explain the attacks on synagogues and temples? If killing Jews and Muslims isn't extermination, what is? If torching their places of worship isn't proposing extermination, what is? If chanting, "Jews will not replace us." isn't about extermination, what is? If attacking hijab-wearing women isn't approaching extermination, what is?
And I do think you'll find that it's not liberal, coastal elites in blue states that are promulgating these attacks.
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American Jews are not stupid. They all saw and heard the white nationalists at Charlottesville chanting "The Jews will not replace us" -- those same chanters Trump referred to as "good people." Our own security organs have long ago concluded that domestic white extremists pose a far greater threat to the United States than Muslim terrorists, again something the Jewish community is well aware of. So Trump's wedge driving isn't working on that front.
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That is blatantly untrue. Most right wingers love the Jewish people, and any Muslim who doesn't believe Sharia Law should come to a town near you, which unfortunately is less than half of the Muslim population around the world according to a Pew Research poll that was taken a few years back.
In other words, stop smearing people you know literally nothing about. This is getting old, and it's not journalism. Journalisming maybe, but journalism it is not.
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How can your readers thoroughly understand the interpretation if the questions are not available to the reader? What did the author of the poll mean by "rights"? It's like taking a poll to see how many people believe in God. My definition influences my response. If I don't know what the authors meant how can I answer? People reading this interpretation are being influenced without even knowing it.
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Analyses based on these kinds of surveys are inherently flawed because there is nothing to ensure the honesty of the respondents' answers--i.e. there is little narrative reliability.
Which respondents are going to self-identify as nativists and to what purpose?
Compared to the rest of the world, America still remains a good place to live for Jews and Muslims.
The throwaway concluding sentiment is unconvincing. What happens in the Middle East influences the treatment of Jews and Muslims throughout the world.
"Sniping" does not adequately describe the history of this geopolitical conflict.
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@Vox. ‘Narrative reliability’ exactly. Very few people will either admit or even realize the actual color of their thinking. Especially now that nothing’s anonymous, and what you tell a pollster can turn up anywhere.
Although we, as Americans, are notable for speaking up in public without worry about secret police coming for us, I think that’s changing due to technology. Is Big Brother watching you in the sanctity of your home? These days, yes, with eyes and ears in the television, light switches, even the thermostat.
So, how do you do a legitimate survey of our personal opinions without getting skewed toward protective blather? I guess you have to ask Seri.
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Here's what your poll missed and why it's of little value. Politicians like Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, are pushing moderate and liberal Jews into the arms of the GOP because they support the BDS movement. The overwhelming majority of Jews are deeply offended by this group and oppose all their goals. Many of the BDS movement's founding goals, along with several of the strategies employed in BDS campaigns are anti-Semitic. Many individuals involved in BDS campaigns are driven by fierce opposition to Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state. The predominant driver of the BDS campaign & its leadership is not criticism of Israeli policies, but the demonization & delegitimization of Israel. Guess what? Holocaust deniers share the same goals. It should surprise no one the BDS finds it's strongest support in the Middle East which is also the most receptive audience for those who deny the Holocaust. A quick glance at Arabic social media shows Holocaust denial is widespread in the Arab world. This close association with the BDS movement can't be denied. It's incredibly hypocritical for Democrats to say we support the state of Israel when they have members who are publicly undermining them by supporting the BDS movement. To say the BDS does not call for the destruction of the Israeli state is either willful ignorance or outright lying. As a Democrat, I'm embarrassed that we tolerate pro-BDS advocates in our party.
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@Bill Brown... We need to hear this from Nancy Pelosi:
"Representatives Omar and Tlaib were duly elected by the voters of their districts. Their pro-BDS sentiments are positions that they may pursue. Please know that these are not objectives supported by the Democratic Party. Indeed, we overwhelmingly are opposed to the pro-BDS movement."
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@Bill Brown, Your comment seems to conflate BDS with another Holocaust. But I think that we need to address exactly what "existence as a Jewish state" means. Do you mean essentially an ethnostate that, while having concessions to democratic norms, is explicitly not a state for all its citizens, and (in different degrees in Israel proper and the West Bank) necessarily discriminates against Palestinians? As Daniel Gordis' column the other day conceded, that's not a liberal democracy.
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@Bill Brown
Why is BDS not called a "Jewish boycott" in the same way Trump's 90 day moratorium on a handful of Islamic countries was called a "Muslim boycott"? Trump's ban pertained to only 6% of Islamic countries, whereas their ban pertains to 100% of Jewish countries.
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"enemy of my enemy is my friend" Both groups should remember there are many people in the US who want everyone in both groups dead.
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Why not. ?
Israel and Saudi Arabia are best friends now a days.
They have a common enemy.
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It is true that Jews and Muslims share a common antagonist, and there have been many published accounts of Jewish communities reaching out to Muslim immigrants recently. But when Jews need support, are Muslims stepping up ?
I found it quite disheartening to note when Ilhan Omar made her incendiary comments, that the protest coming from the Muslim community was non-existent.
Where are all those liberal Muslims who ought to be saying, I disagree with Jews about Israel, but I stand ready to fight for their right to be Zionists if they want to ?
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@G- If you had looked at all the instances of anti-semitic violence (including the Pittsburgh synagogue), you would have seen that Muslims in America stepped up big time.
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@G After the white nativist murder rampage against the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, the Muslim community of Ann Arbor stood in solidarity with the Jewish community, and I heard of the same happening in towns and cities across the country. So, yes, Muslims are indeed stepping up, and I thank them.
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@G
You must have missed Ilhan Omar's public apology. Muslims are about 1% of the U.S. population. Your post reminds of all the people wondering why Muslims don't denounce Islamic terrorists. Of course, they do denounce Islamic terrorism. People hear what they want to hear.
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But identifying these common interests requires each party to concede that its current or historical oppression is not as unique as it might wish, and that one party enjoys far more influence and power than the other.
Judging from the views of regular contributors to this page, those concessions will prove impossible to obtain.
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No surprises here. Pretending to attack ‘the other’ bought trump, not only the few hundred votes you measured, but tens of millions. It’s a ploy that has worked very well in America from almost the beginning. Why Muslims and Jews? The former, pretty well invisible to most of the country as an invading population, were forever tagged courtesy Bush’s wars. Followup by Hollywood, media bloviators, religionists. Inescapable consequence. The latter, an enduring target of the peculiar evangelical dogma, as well as historical American Catholic culture. The most bizarre, but not thereby ineffective or unsupported teaching is the whole deal with the Rapture, Jews, and American political support for the right wing in Israel.
In effect, political leverage is purchased at home by branding identifiable populations as evil, even if it involves completely contradictory fact.
Dangerous, or just part of a now-corrupt political process, including purchasable elections? I suggest that the ‘camps’ at our southern border and the re-election saber-rattling for a Mideast war provide some evidence.
Statistically valid surveys also indicate that the public does not favor the Constitution when presented without it’s title and antique language.
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The struggle over Palestine has already cost tens of thousands of lives, from Egyptians to Israelis to Palestinians to Syrians. It is far from being over as Iran too has ramped up on anti Israel threats. Meanwhile Israel is armed to the teeth with nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, capable of annihilating Iran within a day (See 1967 Six Day War first four hours Israel air strike wiping out Egyptian air force for a miniature preview of a full scale nuclear strike on Iran - probably in response to a limited Iranian nuclear attack on Israel.) This is the big story; what happens in the U.S. is a small side show, a distraction.
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@Henry, Israel has had nuclear weapons for decades but has never used them. They serve as a warning to Iran, which has repeatedly threatened to wipe out Israel.
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@Henry
If Iran isn't intent on destroying Israel then it has nothing to fear. You don't seem to point out the inconvenient fact that Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, has over 100K missiles in neighboring Lebanon and Syria. These would be devastating to Israel (a very small country) just as a few nukes would be for Iran.
"American Jews and American Muslims thus have a common adversary who are to be found, for the most part, among Mr. Trump’s most committed supporters."
Now, take the words "Jews" and "Muslims" out of the sentence. After all, we are all Americans first. So yes, EVERYONE opposed to bigotry and hate, especially when based on national origin or religion, has a "common adversary" in the white supremacy movement.
This post shouldn't be about religion- it should be about the need for concerted resistance against the unapologetic enemies of our democracy- Donald Trump and his Republican enablers.
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As God is my witness, I thought we as a Nation would be past this by now. There is no rational reason to look down on others, not even a Nationalist. I think they collectively need a big hug.
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Not only American Jews and American Muslims but everybody who loves America should work together against the threat of nativism to stand up for the great values of this country and preserve liberty and equality for all the citizens of the United States regardless of their color, religion, ethnicity or political affiliation.
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Who are the "American Nativists?" we are ALL immigrants (except the Native Americans who actually also came here (through the Bering Straits). The only difference between the so called Blue Bloods and Jews whose ancestors came from Tsarist Russia or South America in 16th century, is how many generations they have been here.
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@Stefan
My paternal ancestors came from Brooklyn, and before that, from Newark. My maternal ancestors came from Denver.
And I support the rights of all citizens of this country regardless of religion, skin color, ancestry, etc.
But along the lines of the late Barbara Jordan's recommendations when she ran a commission on immigration reform under President Clinton, I think that legal immigration should be greatly reduced, and that immigration laws should be enforced.
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@Foster Furcolo I guess that now that you and your ancestors are safely in the country, it's time to pull up the ladder behind you, right? Snark aside, what factual basis is there for a need to reduce immigration? They spur the economy and provide educated professionals (esp. doctors) to rural areas.
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@John Neumann
We are the major developed nation with the greatest per capita resource use and greenhouse emissions. The average immigrant's GH emissions rise fourfold after arrival. The demographics of current immigration to the US are costly--especially to American workers. According to numbers from the 2016 National Academy of Sciences study of the fiscal and econ consequences of immigration, immigration has resulted in an annual transfer of half a trillion dollars from workers to business owners. The other winners are immigrants themselves.
It is probable that had the US followed the recommendations of the late Barbara Jordan from when she ran a commission on immigration reform under Pres. Clinton, Trump never would have been elected, as immigration was his signature issue. Ms. Jordan--who had made her name on the House Watergate Committee, and was an African American Democrat from Texas--had recommended reducing legal immigration by roughly half--in no small part to help keep African Americans employed--and strict enforcement of immigration laws, which has never happened since the Reagan amnesty of '86.
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"American Jews and American Muslims thus have a common adversary who are to be found, for the most part, among Mr. Trump’s most committed supporters."
Profs. Ron and Lavine,
You seemingly have a very narrow definition definition of both "American Jews" and "American Muslims".
2,000 people? And other groups that may have included Jews and Muslims. The United States is a big place. Both Jews and Muslims come in all kinds of forms and varieties with different concerns and political persuasions beyond those concern with Trumpian issues.
And just for your information, one of the issues that, like it or not, is and will remain a major concern for both groups is the Middle East.
Perhaps Trump-supporting nativists are a danger, but I cannot imagine either one or both groups making this the priority you would suggest,
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Hatred is the provenance of Republicans and is rooted in their inherent fear. As such, it is predominately unconscious "thinking" and I would argue there is little that be done about how a person was born. Multiple generations are needed or longer if you want to wait out evolutionary change.
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@Gery Katona
And 50 years ago, the democrats, the party of Jim Crow, showed great tolerance for immigrants. Since LBJ nothing has changed, they are just used as political pawns for votes
1
Dear Professors: You should have been more circumspect when describing the results of your survey/study. I’m sure, as academics, you understand false positive rates in statistical inference. You sliced and diced the data in many ways; the 2000 person sample, even if, in fact, representative of the US population, is not large enough to support, with a high degree of certainty, your many conclusions. The conclusions are interesting and may be correct, but they should be interpreted as opinion, not supported by the study you described.
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@BPP In Maine
The fact remains that as flawed as the survey may be the conclusion is as valid as it was when Mark Twain wrote about it and Tom Lehrer sang about it.
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@BPP In Maine Surely, it would be beneficial to replicate this study with larger samples. But, this is a first one and if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....
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@BPP In Maine
Or you could avoid the study all together and just listen to hate radio and come to the same conclusion as Ron and Lavine
8