Americans Regard Religious Freedom Of Christians More Important Than That Of Minorities

Americans are more likely to vouch for protection of religious liberties of Christians than Muslims irrespective of their political affiliation, a new poll shows.

According to VOX, the poll by Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed that 61 percent of Americans said it is important to let Muslims freely practice religion but 82 percent claimed the same for Christians. Surprisingly, the difference among democrats and republicans who described protecting religious freedom of Muslims was small; republicans 61 % compared to 60 % democrats.

The poll also revealed that not everybody is happy with the government's efforts in protecting religious freedom; only 55 % expressed satisfaction with the government's efforts while 27 % said the government is doing a poor job out of protecting religious rights, The Washington Post reports.

The poll was conducted after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, between December 10 and December 13. While some quoted by AP said that the numbers indicating a growing anti-Islam sentiment in the United States others called for equal protection of rights of all faiths.

Interestingly, the exercise also revealed that 63 % of Americans would like the rights protected of people without religion while another 72 % said religious freedom Jews was important.