THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?
SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).
- A new Rasmussen Reports–Our Republic survey finds 43% of likely voters ages 18–24 view Sharia favorably, compared with just 16% of voters 40 and older.
- More striking: 27% of voters under 30 would support allowing Sharia to become the legal code for everyone in an American community if a local majority approved it.
- Americans overall strongly oppose the idea: 83% reject adopting Sharia as local law, while 76% oppose requiring public schools to teach its benefits.
LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).
Remember when the big generational argument was whether young Americans understood socialism?
Well, apparently there’s a new subject for the civics classroom.
A new Rasmussen Reports–Our Republic survey finds that 43% of likely voters between the ages of 18 and 24 have a favorable opinion of Sharia, the system of Islamic religious principles and law.
And that’s not even the most revealing number in the poll.
Among voters under 30, 27% said they would support allowing Sharia to become the legal code for everyone in an American town, city or state if a majority of residents favored it.
That’s a very different proposition from respecting someone’s right to practice a religion.
One concerns religious freedom. The other concerns which legal system governs everybody, including people who don’t share that religion.
The poll, conducted September 20 among 1,026 likely U.S. voters, found a striking generational divide.
Among respondents ages 25 to 29, 39% expressed a positive opinion of Sharia. The favorable figure fell to just 16% among voters 40 and older.
Overall, only 21% of likely voters viewed Sharia positively, while 57% held a negative opinion and 22% were unsure.
The survey defined Sharia as Islamic religious principles and law derived primarily from the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad, covering matters such as worship, personal conduct, family life, finance and, in some interpretations, civil and criminal law.
That distinction matters because Sharia does not have one universally applied meaning. Muslims differ in how they interpret and practice it, and a favorable opinion does not necessarily mean someone supports replacing American constitutional law.
That’s why the survey’s separate question about making Sharia the legal code is so important.
When respondents were asked whether they would support such a proposal in an American community if a majority of residents wanted it, 83% said no. Only 7% of voters overall supported the idea.
But among voters under 30, support reached 27%, compared with just 2% among those 40 and older.
The poll also asked whether public schools should be required to teach children about the benefits of Sharia.
Only 8% of voters overall supported that requirement, while 76% opposed it.
Among the youngest respondents, however, 24% of those ages 18 to 24 supported the proposal. That figure rose to 31% among voters ages 25 to 29.
Then came another result likely to stir debate.
Asked which posed a greater threat to America’s future, Sharia or the United States’ alliance with Israel, 34% of respondents ages 18 to 24 chose the alliance with Israel, compared with 22% who chose Sharia.
Among all voters, the result went the other way: 43% identified Sharia as the greater threat, while 25% selected the alliance with Israel.
Those answers measure attitudes toward the two choices presented in the question, not evidence that either one constitutes an actual threat.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas responded to the findings with a warning about constitutional principles.
“Sharia law is incompatible with our Constitution and has no place in America,” Roy said, according to The Daily Signal.
Other Republican lawmakers have raised similar concerns about the possibility of religious law taking precedence over the Constitution.
The First Amendment protects Americans’ freedom to practice Islam, Christianity, Judaism and other religions. It does not permit a government to replace constitutional protections with a religious legal system simply because a local majority favors doing so.
There’s another limitation worth keeping in mind: The survey questioned likely voters, not every young American. Its reported three-point margin of sampling error applies to the full national sample, not necessarily to smaller age groups.
And the survey did not test how much respondents actually knew about Sharia before answering.
Still, the generational contrast is difficult to overlook.
A large majority of American voters reject replacing local law with Sharia. But among younger respondents, both favorable impressions and support for the hypothetical legal change are substantially higher.
Perhaps the most useful question for the next survey is a simple one: How many of those respondents could explain what adopting Sharia as the legal code would actually mean?
Because before America starts debating whether to change the rulebook, it might help to find out who’s read the one we already have.
DBS WIRE SOURCES (I’ve got all day).
- Mediaite — Stunning number of young Americans have a favorable view of Sharia law, new survey reveals
- Rasmussen Reports — Original survey demographic breakdown and age-group responses
- Rasmussen Reports — Original national survey questions, toplines and methodology
- The Daily Signal — New poll: 43% of likely young voters view Islamic Sharia law positively
- Texas Scorecard — Poll finds nearly half of America’s youngest voters view Sharia positively
