More Americans say there’s anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim discrimination now than in 2021: Pew survey

Perceptions of discrimination against Jews and Muslims in the U.S. are rising, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Forty percent of Americans now say there is anti-Jewish bias in the U.S., compared to 20% who said the same in 2021. And 44% say Muslims face “a lot” of discrimination, up from 39% three years ago.

Additionally, 50% of U.S. Muslims and 94% of U.S. Jews say there is discrimination against Jews in America, while 88% of Jews and 85% of Muslims say followers of Islam face bias.

Pew reported that Jewish American perceptions of discrimination have changed over the past decade: U.S. Jews said Muslims and Blacks face discrimination more than Jews in surveys conducted in 2013 and 2020.

The polling firm said the shift “appears to be tied” to the Israel-Hamas conflict, with 89% of Jews saying they’ve noticed a rise in discrimination since the start of the war.

Similarly, 70% of U.S. Muslims and 49% of American Jews say anti-Arab bias has increased since the war began in October.

The survey found that most Americans support debate over Israel and statehood for Palestinians.

Seventy percent of Americans said speech supporting “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state” should be permitted, and 58% said speech opposing that right should be allowed.

In addition, 66% said speech in favor of “Palestinians having their own state” should be allowed, and 61% said speech opposing that idea should be permitted.

And 73% said speech calling for violence against Jews or Muslims should not be expressed in public.

Meanwhile, 52% of Democrats and 26% of Republicans said anti-Muslim discrimination has increased since the outbreak of hostilities. And 61% of Republicans and 57% of Democrats said anti-Jewish discrimination has risen.

The survey was conducted Feb. 13-25 among 12,693 U.S. adults, and is an extension of earlier surveys this year on American religious attitudes. Pew said the survey included an “oversample” of U.S. Muslims and Jews to gain those groups’ specific opinions on discrimination.

Pew said 10,642 survey respondents came from its American Trends Panel, with the remaining 2,051 participants drawn from the Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, SSRS’ Opinion Panel and the NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak Panel who identified as Muslim or Jewish.

The sampling margin of error for the full 12,693-person group was plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.