Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, large shares of U.S. adults continue to view Muslims as less patriotic or as having a negative effect on the country, while Muslim Americans report both discrimination and personal support, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
The report draws on a quarter-century of Pew surveys, federal hate-crime statistics, an independent count of mosques and research by other organizations. It estimates that the Muslim population in the United States has grown from 2.4 million in 2007 to about 5.5 million today.
In a spring 2026 survey, 43% of U.S. adults said Muslims are less patriotic than other Americans and 42% said Muslim Americans have a negative impact on the country. Some respondents explicitly cited the 2001 attacks when explaining those views.
Views of Islam have grown more negative and partisan
In March 2002, 25% of adults said Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence. Across 11 later Pew polls, the figure never fell below 38%, and early this year it stood at 51%.
The partisan gap also widened. In 2026, 76% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said Islam encourages violence, compared with 29% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. Six months after the attacks, the comparable figures were 32% and 23%.
FBI data show reported anti-Muslim hate crimes jumped from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001. Annual totals have fluctuated since then, ranging from 95 in 2021 to 307 in 2016, but have not returned to their pre-9/11 level.
Muslims report discrimination and support
Pew's in-depth surveys of Muslim Americans in 2007, 2011 and 2017 consistently found personal experiences of discrimination and frustration with media coverage. They also found examples of support from friends and neighbors.
That mix was evident immediately after the attacks. A late-2001 survey found 52% of Muslims said their community had experienced anti-Muslim discrimination and 68% viewed media portrayals as unfair, while 75% said Americans had been respectful and tolerant.
As of May 2026, most Muslim respondents said there was a lot of discrimination against Muslims and that media portrayals were often unfair. At the same time, 34% said someone had expressed support for them in the previous year because they were Muslim.
Pew said experiences vary by age, place of birth and visibility. Younger and U.S.-born Muslims have tended to view Americans as less friendly than older or immigrant Muslims, and people who are visibly identifiable as Muslim, including women who wear headscarves, have reported especially high rates of discrimination.
Population and political representation grow
The number of U.S. mosques rose from about 1,200 in 2000 to nearly 2,800 in 2020, according to the Faith Communities Today project. Pew said Muslim Americans have also become more visible in electoral politics.
There are four Muslim members of Congress, with a fifth expected to join, compared with none in 2001. Muslim candidates have won major-party nominations in both parties, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania's 2022 Republican Senate primary and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's 2026 Democratic Senate primary.
Pew also cited overtly anti-Muslim political statements made this year by Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, illustrating that increased representation has coincided with continued hostility.
Analysis spans surveys and federal data
The 2026 findings about Muslim Americans were drawn from Pew's American Trends Panel and nationally representative panels run by SSRS, Ipsos and NORC at the University of Chicago. Population estimates combined Pew's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study with Census Bureau and earlier Pew data.
Hate-crime figures came from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program for 1999 through 2025, while mosque counts came from the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership. Pew noted that surveys changed from telephone interviews to its nationally representative panel over the period covered.
The analysis was led by Pew principal researcher Besheer Mohamed. Pew said its work was supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts and several foundations.
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