Greg Sargent points out that a new public opinion poll from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that a majority, 56 percent of Americans, support Congressional hearings into Islamic extremism. Rep. Peter King's approach of singling out American Muslims for scrutiny is less popular. Seventy-two percent support broader hearings while only 22 percent say it should only focus on American Muslims.
But that's not the only interesting result. The right wing conspiracy theory that American Muslims want to establish Sharia law in the U.S. appeals to a rather defined group. According to the poll:
Only about 1-in-5 (22%) Americans believe that American Muslims want to establish Shari'a law as law of the land in the United States. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the public disagree.
Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to believe that Muslims want to establish Shari'a law as law of the land (31% to 15%).
Those who most trust Fox News are twice as likely as those who most trust Broadcast news and about four times as likely those who most trust public television to believe this (35%, 18% and 9%)
More than one-third (34%) of white evangelicals believe Muslims are trying to impose Shari'a law, compared to only 20% of white mainline Protestants and 22% of white Catholics.
The best part? Not only do the findings "show a significant correlation between trust in Fox News and negative attitudes about Muslims," but Republicans who watch Fox News are also more likely to believe they're well informed about Islam.
Republicans who say Fox News is their most trusted news source are more likely than Republicans who trust a different news source to say they are well-informed about Islam (53% to 34%). They are also more likely than Republicans who most trust other news sources to say the hearings are a good thing (82% to 60%).
So there's a correlation between Republicans who watch Fox News and people who believe the insane conspiracy theory that "American Muslims want to establish Shari'a law as law of the land in the United States." These people also mistakenly think that they're well-informed about Islam.
These results aren't exactly surprising for a network that's spent the last couple of years trafficking heavily in that kind of paranoia but they're an example how deeply once confined to the Islamophobic fringe have seeped into mainstream Republican discourse.
