Sunday, February 25, 2007

Jews most strongly oppose war

Here's an interesting survey, Jews show the least support for the war in Iraq than any other religious group. Mormons show the most support:

Of these major religious groups, three show more opposition than support for the war:

  • Jewish people oppose the Iraq war by a better than 3-to-1 margin, 77% to 21%.
  • Americans without a religious preference are twice as likely to oppose (66%) as to support (33%) the war.
  • Catholics are somewhat more likely to oppose (53%) than to support the war (46%).

On the other hand, Mormons and Protestants show more support than opposition to the war. Mormons are strongly in favor, as just 27% term the war "a mistake." Overall, Protestants are divided, with 48% opposed and 49% in favor. But black Protestants and non-black Protestants diverge in their views. Black Protestants -- who are overwhelmingly Democratic -- show strong opposition to the war, while among non-black Protestants, support for the Iraq war surpasses the majority level (55% say the war was not a mistake).

[...]

The widespread Jewish opposition to the war in Iraq is not a recent development as the majority of all Americans have come to oppose the war in the past two years. Even in 2003 and 2004, when more Americans favored (52%) than opposed the war (46%), 6 in 10 Jews (61%) were opposed to it.

And during the run-up to the war in late 2002 and early 2003, U.S. Jews were divided in their views on whether to invade Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power (49% were in favor, 48% opposed). At that time, Americans overall favored an invasion by a 57% to 37% margin.