Excerpt:
When Ben Affleck appeared on Bill Maher's Real Time last week, an argument about Islam and Muslims dominated the show. Maher and famous atheist Sam Harris clashed with Affleck over whether or not fundamentalist and extremist Islamist groups such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda are merely fringe elements in the Muslim world or if they are firmly in the mainstream. This question is illustrated starkly by events in Iraq and Syria, as a number of Muslim countries, including Jordan and the UAE, join the US in bombing ISIS whose militants are often recruited from Muslim communities outside of Iraq and Syria.
YouGov's latest research shows that 47% of Americans think that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence, while 34% say that Islam is about as likely as other religions to be violent. Older Americans are also far more likely than younger Americans to see Islam as violent. 63% of over-65s say that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence, compared to only 31% of under-30s. People ageed 30-44 are evenly split on the issue, while most (54%) people aged 45-64 tend to see Islam as violent. Republicans (69%) are more than twice as likely as Democrats (32%) to say that Islam is more encouraging of violence than other religions.