One in five American Muslims knows of support for extremism in their community, new research has found, despite Muslims being far happier about the state of the US than other groups.
As the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, 21 per cent of respondents told a study they had detected “a great deal” or “a fair deal” of support for extremism in their areas.
While the vast majority said that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians to protect Islam were never justified, 19 per cent of respondents did not agree with this statement.
Peter King, a Republican congressman for New York, said the findings “reinforce the need” for him to continue holding controversial hearings on the radicalisation of American Muslims.
“There is a small percentage of American Muslims who are sympathetic to al-Qaeda. al-Qaeda is trying to recruit them. They are the ones we should be looking for,” said Mr King.
The study, by the Pew Research Centre, found 56 per cent of Muslims were “satisfied with the current direction of the country”, compared to just 23 per cent of the population at large.
Those two figures have grown further apart since four years ago, when 38 per cent of Muslims and 32 per cent of the general population were content with America’s direction.
The study also found that 79 per cent of American Muslims rated their communities as “excellent” or “good” places to live.
However more than half of Muslims said they felt singled out for terrorist surveillance, and 43 per cent said they had personally experienced harassment in the past year.