Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU)
Higher Islamophobia Index Score Linked to Higher Support for Trump Policies
As previously reported, endorsing the false tropes about Muslims in the U.S. that comprise ISPU’s National American Islamophobia Index is linked to support for policies that are prejudicial to American Muslims as well as anti-democratic measures such as suspending the right to free speech in the wake of a terrorist attack. In prior years, we’ve examined associations between Islamophobia Index scores and voter participation and support for coalition building on a number of issues. Here we do the same. The next section will provide more information about the creation of the Islamophobia Index and an analysis of Islamophobia in 2025.
This year, we tested a number of high-profile policies championed by the Trump administration, some popular with the public and others opposed by the majority, to assess to what extent, if at all, endorsing Islamophobic tropes predicted support for these policies. Specifically, we looked at the probability of support for each policy as a function of Islamophobia, while controlling for standard demographic factors including political party identification, political views, income, education, nativity, age, sex, and race.
The values in Figure 48 below are the average marginal effects of Islamophobia on support for each Trump policy and represent the percent increase in likelihood of support for each policy comparing the highest and lowest levels of Islamophobia, while controlling for demographic factors. The results of this analysis are as follows.
Among the general public, Islamophobia is a meaningful, significant predictor of all policies we asked about, except for two: 1) cutting Medicare/Medicaid and 2) reducing the federal workforce. On the other hand, endorsing at least one of the five anti-Muslim tropes is a predictor of support for the “Muslim ban,” with those with the highest levels of Islamophobia being 19% more likely, on average, to support this policy, higher than any other policy tested. The next policy whose support is most impacted by Islamophobia is the expansion of immigration enforcement and the recognition of two sexes. Members of the general public with the highest levels of Islamophobia are 15% more likely to support expansion of ICE and upholding the gender binary than those with the lowest Islamophobia.
Similarly, among Muslims, Islamophobia is a significant predictor of support for all of the Trump policies we tested except 1) the recognition of only two sexes; 2) support for tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China; 3) the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency; and 4) reducing the federal workforce. Like the general public, the most impacted policy is support for the “Muslim ban,” with Muslims who agree with any of five anti-Muslim tropes being 19% more likely to support. Muslims who endorse at least one anti-Muslim trope are 17%–18% more likely than those who do not support any Islamophobic tropes to support the other policies (see Figure 48).
Endorsing Islamophobic ideas is a powerful predictor of support for both domestic policies that impact all Americans as well as policies that disproportionately impact Muslims, such as deporting pro-Palestinian student protesters, the so-called “Muslim ban,” and the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. This link between public Islamophobia and support for policies opposed by most Americans highlights how Islamophobia harms not just Muslims but society at large.
Religious Discrimination and Religious-Based Bullying
Muslims Most Likely to Experience Religious Discrimination
In 2025, Muslims are the most likely religious group to report having experienced religious discrimination in the prior year (63%), more so than Jews (50%), Catholics (25%), Protestants (27%), white Evangelicals (26%), and the non-affiliated (22%). Muslim men and women are equally likely to report facing religious discrimination (63% and 64%, respectively).
Proportion of Muslims Who Experience Religious Discrimination Unmoved since 2016
The portion of Muslims who experience discrimination based on their religion has held fairly steady since 2016. In 2016, when ISPU first fielded the American Muslim Poll, 60% of Muslims reported facing religious discrimination. In subsequent years, from 2017 to 2022, the proportion ranged from 60% to 62%. The lack of statistically significant differences in the proportion of Muslims reporting religious discrimination across these years suggests that who is in the White House does not impact the social and structural bias in the everyday lives of Muslims.
Muslims Most Likely to Face Religious Discrimination on Both Social and Structural Level
To those who responded that they faced any religious discrimination in the past year, we asked a series of follow-up questions asking if they faced religious discrimination in various settings. For the purpose of the following analysis, we categorized the following settings as social discrimination:
At your place of work when interacting with peers
At your university/college/academic institution when interacting with your peers
We categorize these other settings as structural discrimination:
- When applying for a job
- When buying/leasing a home/condo/apartment
- At the airport
- When interacting with law enforcement
- When interacting with immigration officers/officials
- When receiving healthcare services, such as a medical or dental appointment, mental health services, or hospital
- On social media from social media platform companies (Facebook, X, etc.)
- When interacting and/or conducting transactions with a U.S. banking/financial institution
- At your university/college/academic institution when interacting with people in authority
- At your place of work when interacting with people in authority
Social Discrimination
Among those who reported having faced religious-based discrimination in the past year, Muslims (28%) were on par with other religious groups to have experienced it from peers at work, including Protestants (23%) and Jews (20%). Muslims (25%) were also more likely than any other group who reported facing religious discrimination to have experienced it at their university when interacting with peers, more than twice as likely as Jews (13%) and Protestants (6%).
Structural Discrimination
Among those who reported facing religious discrimination across religious and non-religious groups, social media from social media platform companies (such as having posts removed or accounts closed) topped the list as the most likely context studied where respondents experienced it. Among Muslims who experienced religious discrimination, almost half (49%) reported experiencing discrimination on social media from social media platform companies. Among those who experienced discrimination, 46% of Jews and 24% of Protestants reported religious discrimination from social media companies on their platforms, the highest of any context measured, with Jews on par with Muslims and Protestants less likely than Muslims to have had this occur. Airports follow social media platforms as the most frequent settings where Muslims experience religious discrimination (37%), and uniquely so, as no more than 6% of all other groups studied reported the same.
Among Muslims who experienced discrimination, 20%–29% experienced it in the following settings, all representing structural bias: when applying for a job (28%), when interacting with immigration officials (29%), at their place of employment when interacting with people in authority (26%), at their university when interacting with people in authority (24%), when interacting with law enforcement (26%), when receiving healthcare (23%), when buying or leasing a home (20%), and when banking (20%). In almost all cases, Muslims are more likely than any group studied to report discrimination in these spaces.