Walid comments on Pew study on American Muslims

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/UPDATE/705220453

Survey: Muslims largely assimilated in U.S.
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News

Muslims are largely assimilated into the United States, happy with their lives and moderate in outlook, especially with respect to many issues that divide Muslims and westerners around the world, according to a major national study released today by the Pew Research Center.

By greater numbers than Muslims in the Middle East, South Asia or Europe, American Muslims reject extremism. They also have significantly greater incomes than Muslims from those other regions, according to the study -- billed as the first nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans.

The Pew Research Center conducted more than 55,000 interviews to obtain a national sample of 1,050 Muslims living in the United States, including in Metro Detroit. It was not immediately known how many residents of southeastern Michigan were polled.

"Overall, the report shows that the American Muslim community is very well integrated into mainstream American society," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, in Michigan.

The report did show some support of extremist views among Muslim youths and African-American Muslims.

"The most disillusioned segment of the Muslim community being African-Americans is not a big surprise. African-Americans have been historically disenfranchised in America and have not enjoyed the degree of economic upward mobility as immigrant Muslims."(MORE)