Personal contact with Muslims predicts more favorable attitudes toward them

Evidence

For example, a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 27 percent of white evangelicals in America claimed to know anyone who is a Muslim (with even fewer evangelicals claiming to know someone who is a Hindu or Buddhist). That same Pew study found that nearly half (49 percent) of black evangelicals (like the aforementioned Professor Larycia Hawkins) confirmed that they actually do personally know a Muslim in their everyday lives. Following suit, when Pew asked these people to rate their (positive or negative) feelings about people of other faiths, it should come as little surprise that black Protestants gave Muslims higher ratings than other American religious minority groups like Mormons, atheists, Hindus, or Buddhists. At the other end of the spectrum, this Pew study found that white evangelicals gave atheists and Muslims the lowest favorability ratings possible. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 400

Categorization

• XREF: This contact hypothesis finding connects to the reader’s synthesis on Islamophobia across the Beydoun, Kumar, and Sweida-Metwally cluster. — connects to: Muslim visibility in Europe paradoxically increases perceived non-integration — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 708; Direct contact with Muslims shaped imperial perceptions of Islam. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 118; Sustained daily contact tempered hostile European images of Muslims. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 51 (+3 more)
• SEED: An angle contrasting white evangelical isolation (27% know a Muslim) versus black evangelical engagement (49%) as a lived example of how US Islamophobia tracks social separation, not just ideology.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 400

Related

• Personal contact with Muslims substantially reduces anti-Muslim sentiment across party lines (similarity 0.84)
• Direct contact with Muslims shaped imperial perceptions of Islam. (similarity 0.82)
• Muslim visibility in Europe paradoxically increases perceived non-integration (similarity 0.81)
• Positive depictions of Islam emerged only where real daily contact occurred. (similarity 0.81)
• Sustained daily contact tempered hostile European images of Muslims. (similarity 0.80)
• Non-Muslim faith communities have often cooperated with Muslims in dialogue and common cause (similarity 0.79)
• Anti-Muslim prejudice is fueled by lack of personal contact and by organized moneyed interests (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Sustained daily contact tempered hostile European images of Muslims. #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 51