Some perspective from that new poll by The Washington Post: More Americans have an unfavorable view toward Islam than at any time since the 9/11 attacks, with 37 percent saying they have a favorable view and 49 percent saying they have an unfavorable view. That's almost a reversal of the numbers in 2001, where the favorable/unfavorable was 47 percent to 39 percent.
The biggest spike in unfavorable ratings, though, appears to have occurred between 2003 and 2006, where respondents saying they had an unfavorable view of Islam went from 38 percent to 46 percent, and it's been mostly rising slowly ever since. What happened between 2003 and 2006? Well among other things, Iraq went from "Mission Accomplished" to "what have we done?"
So here's a potential complicating factor for folks like me who have looked back nostalgically at the inclusive rhetoric of George W. Bush compared to the rampant Islamophobia on the right today. Aside from the obvious problems created by the invasion of Iraq, the deaths, the distraction from al-Qaeda and Afghanistan, it may have another legacy -- inflaming American Islamophobia.
