Nearly half of American voters – 45 percent — think relations between the United States and Muslims worldwide have deteriorated in the past four years, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday.
Only 18 percent said relations had improved in the four years since Barack Obama became president, while 31 percent said U.S.-Muslim relations are about the same.
The poll found 68 percent of all voters believe there is a global conflict between Western and Islamic civilizations, up five points since May. Just 15 percent say there is no conflict.
Republicans overwhelmingly said they thought U.S.-Muslim relations had gotten worse during the past four years. Meanwhile, 32 percent of Democrats said things had actually gotten better, compared to 20 percent who say they have gotten worse.
The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Sept. 21-22, after violent protests over a U.S.-made movie that denigrates Islam’s Prophet Muhammad began sweeping the Muslim world. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, with a 95 percent level of confidence.