by DR. ANDREW PROCTOR, DR. ALEX FLORES, DALIA MOGAHED
SUMMARY
According to the U.S. Census, just under 20% of Americans are Latino, a sizable proportion of the American public. Demographic data from ISPU’s American Muslim Poll finds that 9% of Muslims in the United States are Latino, a steadily growing percentage. In previous research, ISPU found that Latinos have lower levels of Islamophobia than other racial and ethnic groups in the United States and the general public. These demographic trends, coupled with the lower levels of Islamophobia found among this population, motivate this research, which included individual interviews and focus groups. Our findings include themes relating to lower levels of Islamophobia, what manifestations of Islamophobia still persist, and research-based recommendations for mitigating it.
INTRODUCTION
The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) has been tracking Islamophobia since 2018. ISPU’s Islamophobia Index measures the level of agreement with five tropes about Muslims that are shown to be linked to support for anti-Muslim policies. The Islamophobia Index ranges from zero to 100, with higher scores indicating greater Islamophobia. Since 2018, we have found relatively stable levels of Islamophobia among the general public, with a score of 24 in 2018, 28 in 2019, 27 in 2020, and 25 in 2022. These data suggest that Islamophobia is not a one-off problem, rather it is a deeply rooted problem that requires strategic and evidence-based education and counteraction to resolve.
The first step toward countering Islamophobia is to better understand it. In an effort to do this, ISPU analyzed Islamophobia Index scores among American subgroups, revealing that some groups score higher or lower on the Index than others. When looking at Islamophobia by race/ethnicity in 2019, we found that Latino Americans have significantly lower levels of Islamophobia compared with white and Black Americans (23 vs. 28 and 33, respectively).¹ Through this study we sought to employ a positive deviance approach to understand how and why Latino Americans stand out from others with more positive behavior (lower Islamophobia).
According to recent Census Bureau estimates, nearly one-fifth (19%) of the U.S. population is of Hispanic origin. Studying Islamophobia among a group that represents such a significant portion of the population will present possible solutions and strategies that can then be applied to the rest of the population.
Just as the Latino population in the U.S. has grown and continues to grow, the proportion of Latino Muslims is also growing. According to ISPU’s American Muslim Poll, 9% of American Muslims self-identified as Latino in 2020, compared with 5% in 2017. This growth points to possible increases in Latino-Muslim interactions. In fact, ISPU’s 2019 American Muslim Poll found that Latino Americans were more likely than white and Black Americans to know a Muslim personally (see Table 3). Greater intersectionality between the two American communities warrants more research on Latino views of Muslims.
Finally, we understand that Latino Americans, like American Muslims, are not a monolith. They are ethnically and geographically diverse and, also like Muslims, include various immigrant, generational, and citizenship statuses in the United States. Research into whether and where there are differences in views of Muslims by various subsets of Latino Americans will aid our understanding of where the positive deviance lies.
ISPU was proud to partner with IslamInSpanish in this important research project. IslamInSpanish is the preeminent outreach and education organization on Islam in the Spanish language, reaching millions of Latinos in the US and Latin America with accurate information about the beliefs and Islamic roots found within the Latino culture. This research sought to inform their educational and audiovisual material with evidence.
The research team made thoughtful consideration as to the language to use when recruiting participants, conducting interviews, and writing this report, in particular around the decision to use ‘Latino’ vs. ‘Latinx.’ The decision to use ‘Latino’ is based on the following points: First, it represents how the community refers to itself as a group. Over the course of fifteen years of polling, for example, Pew Research Center has consistently found that Latinos do not have a preference between the use of Hispanic and Latino as a pan-ethnic term to refer to the group (Pew 2020). In addition, just 3% use the term Latinx to identify themselves and only one-quarter of U.S. Hispanics have heard the term ‘Latinx’. Additionally, some critics have called into question the term’s origin among English speakers in the United States (Pew 2020). In light of this research and ongoing debates about the use of Latinx, we decided to use the term Latino.
What follows is a synthesis of our research on Latino views of Muslims and Islam. We summarize our findings in each section as well as provide direct quotes as evidence that illustrate our conclusions.² After the results, we offer recommendations for stakeholders and future research.
Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) for more