Poll: Most Know Those With Anti-Muslim Feeling

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

A majority of Americans say they know people who have negative feelings toward Muslims because of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Fifty-five percent say they know someone who has negative feelings toward Muslims tied to the attacks, while roughly one in five say they themselves have such feelings. Forty percent say they don't know anyone with such feelings, and three in four say they don't personally harbor them.

Seventy-one percent, meanwhile, say that it is at least somewhat likely that Arab Americans, Muslims, and immigrants from the Middle East are being discriminated against in America.

Thirty-four percent say it is very likely such discrimination is occurring, while 37 percent call it somewhat likely; one in four say it is not very or not at all likely.

Perceptions are actually improved from 2006, when 85 percent said such discrimination was at least somewhat likely, and from just after the terrorist attacks, when 90 percent saw it as likely.

Men, people who live in the South and those between 45 and 64 are slightly more likely to say they have anti-Muslim sentiments than other Americans. Republicans are four times as likely as Democrats and twice as likely as independents to report such feelings.

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This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.