We have yet more evidence of Islamophobia in America.
A new poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding looked at the prevalence of bullying in American schools, conducting nearly 2,400 interviews of parents across the US in January.
The poll found that 42 percent of Muslim parents say their kids have been bullied due to their religion, whether through insults or physical assaults, at least once in the past year. About 23 percent of Jewish parents, 20 percent of Protestant parents, and 6 percent of Catholic parents reported that their kids were bullied at least once in the past year.
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The results suggest that Muslim students are more than twice as likely to be bullied as their Protestant peers and seven times as likely to be bullied as their Catholic peers.
Among Muslims who reported bullying, one in four parents said the bullying involved a teacher or school official in some way. Put another way, Muslim students reportedly face more bullying from teachers and school officials than Catholic students reportedly face from anyone.
This is far from the first analysis to show Muslims in America face disproportionate levels of discrimination. Jenée Desmond-Harris previously reported on the tide of bullying faced by Muslim students after President Donald Trump’s election. A Pew Research Center survey measured Americans’ “warmth” toward different religious groups, with Christians and Jews ranking the highest and atheists and Muslims ranking the lowest. And in studies conducted by Northwestern University psychologist Nour Kteily, researchers had participants rank different groups based on how evolved they are; among the set of groups provided, Muslims ranked the lowest.
When you put this all together, it seems Islamophobia is a consistent theme in America. And this form of bigotry extends to children in our schools.
