A new report by a Muslim civil rights and political organization shows significant disapproval among Muslim voters of President Biden’s performance, but a projection that voters will prefer Democrats in the coming midterm election.

The report was released this week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — which calls itself the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization — and surveys Muslim Americans on political and social issues this year.

CAIR has undertaken several such survey reports on the Muslim American demographic in the past, including extensive reports on the rise of Islamophobia and discrimination in the country.

CAIR’s Muslim Midterm Election Survey 2022 attempted to gauge “attitudes and affiliations” from a sample of 525 Muslims Americans, regarding political choices as well as other hot-button topics like abortion, gun control and the economy. (The results presented here are rounded off to the next whole number).

The survey revealed that some 49 percent of Muslims disapprove of Biden’s performance while only 28 percent approve. As for this year’s elections, which will decide whether Democrats get to keep their slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, 59 percent said they plan to vote for Democratic congressional candidates in the midterm.

Source: CAIR

The survey shows high voter engagement among Muslim Americans, with more than 85 percent of respondents saying they are likely to vote in the upcoming elections.

Results also show some historically unsurprising political affiliations among Muslim Americans.

Almost 64 percent said they primarily vote for Democrats, versus just 7 percent saying they preferred Republicans. Seventeen percent said they were “independent or not a member of a party.”

An overwhelming majority of respondents said they plan to vote for Democrats in the upcoming midterm.

Some 75 percent of voters said they voted for Biden in the last election, over just 5 percent who said they voted for former President Trump.

Source: CAIR

Some 85 percent of respondents they found the Republican Party to be “unfriendly” towards Muslims. Some 74 percent preferred Democrats over the GOP on fair treatment of all immigrants.

On the “attitudes and affiliations” front, a slight majority of respondents said they were fiscally conservative. Besides Asian and South Asian respondents, a majority from all other groups (Arab, African American, White etc.) identified as socially conservative.

A strong majority said their biggest concerns were gun violence, civil rights, the economy, health access and religious freedom.

The surveyed Muslim Americans also showed deep concern over international issues like the Israeli occupation in Palestine, the conditions of Uyghur Muslims in China and the treatment of Muslims under the right-wing nationalist regime in India.

Source: CAIR

Diverse social issue preference

The survey was open online between May 25 and June 22, the period in which the leaked U.S. Supreme Court decisions overturning federal abortion rights in Roe V. Wade came out.

CAIR says its survey results show “diverse and nearly equally divided opinions” on abortion rights.

Only 14 percent of survey takers said they would support laws allowing abortion at any stage of pregnancy up until birth without any restrictions.  Only 15 percent said they would support laws allowing abortion up until 20 weeks of pregnancy so long as there is an exception for medical emergencies.

The results were mostly similar on other pregnancy windows.

Only 7 percent said they would support laws that prohibit abortion at any state of pregnancy without any exceptions.

By gender, Muslim women were more likely to support permissive state laws on abortion than Muslim men. By race or ethnicity, Black American Muslim respondents were likelier to support stricter regulations on abortion than members of other racial and ethnic groups in the Muslim community.

Only 9 percent of men and 1.3 percent of women said they support laws that prohibit abortion at any state of pregnancy without any exceptions.

Some 82 percent of Muslim respondents also supported a federal ban on semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15, while only 12 percent reported opposing such a ban.

Source: CAIR

President Biden and other elected officials should take concrete actions to address these and other pressing issues of concern to American Muslims and many other Americans. — Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR

Some 46 percent said they supported full cancellation of federal student loans.

The survey was administered online using an online link. In addition to emails sent to mailing lists used by Muslim Americans, social media platforms were used to advertise the survey. 

There is an estimated national population of 8 million Muslims in the country.

Survey takers identified as Muslims of various national and ethnic backgrounds.

“As our survey reveals, American Muslims are a diverse and politically active community that holds unique views on the key political issues of our time, including abortion, gun control, religious freedom, international human rights and other major issues,” said CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell. “President Biden and other elected officials should take concrete actions to address these and other pressing issues of concern to American Muslims and many other Americans.”

Muslim civic engagement has risen simultaneously with an increase in Muslim American candidates running viable campaigns for public offices across the country, with great success in the past years. In Michigan, for the August 2 primary election, voters in Hamtramck, Dearborn, Detroit and surrounding suburbs are seeing a slate of Muslim-identifying candidates for State House, Senate and Congressional races on their ballots.