Getty Images Today, on America’s 250th birthday, the country is once again asking what kind of nation it wants to be. For Muslim Americans, the question is especially urgent. Are we a community apart, defined by grievance and foreign conflict? Or are we part of the American story, with a stake in its promise and a responsibility for its future?
A new national survey of Muslim American registered voters, conducted by the Muslim American Leadership Alliance in partnership with the Rainey Center, suggests the answer is more complicated — and more hopeful — than our politics usually allows.
The poll finds a community that is overwhelmingly patriotic. Ninety-five percent of respondents say they are proud to be American. Eighty-five percent believe in the American dream. Seventy-six percent say the U.S. is one of the greatest countries in the world. Sixty-seven percent say Muslims enjoy more freedom in America than anywhere else.
These numbers should matter. At a time when much of our public discourse treats Muslim Americans either as permanent victims or as a suspect population, the data tell a different story. Most Muslim Americans are not standing outside the American experiment looking in. They are invested in it.
But patriotism is not the whole story. The poll also reveals a community under real ideological pressure. Nearly half of respondents say they feel more loyal to another country. More than half agree that America should ultimately become a Muslim country. Thirty-five percent say they support Hamas over Israel in the war between the two.
These findings cannot be wished away. Nor can the broader context.
In a recent essay for Sapir, Reihan Salam warned that the future of Islam in America will be shaped not only by traditional questions of assimilation, but by ideological temptations that pull communities away from a shared civic identity. Our poll shows both the danger Salam identifies and the possibility of a different path.
Muslim Americans are not simply drifting leftward into grievance politics. Many are moving in a more independent, pragmatic direction. Forty-one percent say Muslims have conservative values and should not be automatically grouped with the progressive left. Forty-four percent say Muslim civic organizations are too focused on Palestine at the expense of other issues. Strong majorities support school choice, parental notification on gender pronouns, stronger border vetting, tougher responses to welfare fraud, and prioritizing public safety over reducing incarceration.
Rather than speaking with one voice, this is a community in argument with itself.
That argument is healthy. It means Muslim Americans are becoming less willing to be managed by political gatekeepers, radical spokesmen, activist nonprofits, or partisan coalitions that treat them as a captive bloc. It also means Muslim leaders have a responsibility to speak honestly.
The American promise has always been demanding. It offers freedom, opportunity, and equal citizenship, but it also asks newcomers and minorities to attach themselves to a shared civic inheritance. That inheritance does not require Muslims to abandon their faith or heritage. On the contrary, America’s genius is that it gives Muslims more room to live freely than any other society on earth.
At 250, America does not need Muslim Americans to become less Muslim. It needs us to become more confidently American — and to help defend the country that made our flourishing possible.
Zainab Khan is president and founder of the Muslim American Leadership Alliance.
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