25 Years After 9/11,
a Portrait of Muslim Americans
September 3, 2026
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have had a lasting impact on Muslims in the United States. Muslim Americans shared in the nation’s grief and fear that day, and in the months and years that followed, they carried the additional burden of being singled out for suspicion.
Twenty-five years later, some Americans still see Islam and Muslims through the lens of 9/11. Yet Muslims are a growing, vibrant part of America’s religious tapestry, one that has become more politically visible in recent years.
Related: 9/11 memories remain vivid in the U.S. 25 years later
Public perceptions about Islam and Muslims
In a Pew Research Center survey this spring, 43% of U.S. adults said Muslims are less patriotic than other Americans, and 42% said Muslim Americans are having a negative impact on the country.
When asked to explain those views in their own words, some survey respondents referred explicitly to the events of 2001 with answers such as “Due to 9/11,” “Remember the twin towers?” and “Fear of another 911 terrorist attack.”
By some measures, public attitudes toward Islam have become more negative than they were immediately after the 9/11 attacks. In March 2002, just six months after the al-Qaida attacks, 25% of U.S. adults said the Islamic religion is more likely than other religions to encourage violence. In 11 subsequent polls, that figure has never been lower than 38%, and in the past decade it has hovered between 45% and 52%. Early this year, about half of U.S. adults surveyed (51%) said Islam encourages violence more than other religions do.
Views on Islam have also become more politically polarized. In this year’s poll, Republicans and independents who lean toward the GOP were far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say Islam encourages violence (76% vs. 29%). In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the partisan gap was much smaller (32% vs. 23%), perhaps reflecting a messaging campaign by then-President George W. Bush, who called Islam a religion of peace.
Views on Islam are now more negative and more partisan than in 2002
% of U.S. adults saying Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violenceJan 2026Oct 2022Aug 2021Jul 2020Sep 2019Apr 2016Dec 2015May 2013Aug 2009Aug 2007Jul 2004Mar 2002050100
Note: The August 2021 survey item was phrased “Islam is more likely than others to encourage violence among its believers.”
Source: Surveys for 2016-2026 data conducted via Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP). Prior year surveys were conducted by telephone.
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The FBI’s annual tally of hate crimes against Muslims spiked in 2001, rising to 481 that year, up from 28 in 2000. Since then, it has fluctuated widely, from a low of 95 in 2021 to a high of 307 in 2016. But it has never returned to pre-9/11 levels.
Reported anti-Muslim hate crimes spiked to record levels in 2001
Number of anti-Islamic incidents reported to the FBI199920032007201120152019202350100150200250300350400450500
Note: “Anti-Islamic” is the FBI’s category for crimes motivated by bias against Islam or Muslims. Counts do not include incidents motivated by two or more biases or crimes motivated by bias against ethnic groups (such as Arabs or South Asians), which also increased dramatically in 2001. Counts reflect crimes reported by participating law enforcement agencies; participation and collection systems changed over time, including the transition to NIBRS in 2021.
Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Hate Crime Statistics, 1999-2025.
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The experiences of Muslim Americans
Pew Research Center has conducted three in-depth studies of U.S. Muslims – in 2007, 2011 and 2017 – and has found some consistent patterns. Many Muslim Americans say they have personally experienced discrimination, and they express frustrations with media coverage of Muslims. But they also say they have received support from some friends and neighbors.
Both acceptance and discrimination were visible even in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. In late 2001, more than half (52%) of Muslims surveyed said their community had experienced anti-Muslim discrimination since the attacks, and 68% said media portrayals of Muslims and Islam were unfair. At the same time, 75% said Americans had been respectful and tolerant of Muslims. The poll was conducted by Zogby International on behalf of Project MAPS and The Pew Charitable Trusts.
To a certain degree, the same pattern exists today. As of May 2026, most Muslims say there is “a lot” of discrimination against Muslims in the U.S. and that media portrayals of Muslims are often unfair. Still, 34% of U.S. Muslims say that someone has expressed support for them in the past year because they are Muslim.
Differing perspectives
Not all Muslims’ experiences are alike. For example, younger Muslims tend to be less likely than older ones to say the American people are generally friendly toward Muslim Americans.
Our 2017 survey also found that Muslims born in the U.S. were significantly less likely than Muslim immigrants to say the American people are generally friendly toward Muslim Americans. U.S.-born Muslims are more likely than immigrants to say they experienced at least one of five types of discrimination in the previous year.
Younger Muslims have been less likely to see other Americans as friendly toward Muslims
% of U.S. Muslims who say …They experienceddiscrimination in the past yearAmerican people are generallyfriendly to MuslimsCoverage of Islam and Muslimsby news is unfairThey experienced discriminationin the past yearAmerican people are generallyfriendly to Muslims
Note: “They experienced discrimination in the past year” includes respondents who said they experienced at least one of the following: being treated with suspicion, singled out by airport security, called offensive names, singled out by other law enforcement, or physically threatened or attacked.
Source: Survey of U.S. Muslims conducted Jan. 23-May 2, 2017.
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Past surveys have also found that Americans who were visibly identifiable as Muslims (including women wearing headscarves) were especially likely to say they had faced discrimination.
What explains these differences? One theory that emerged from our 2017 study is that younger Muslims and those born in the U.S. are more impatient for social change – and perhaps also more confident in their ability to effect it.
Here’s how one interviewee, a U.S.-born Muslim named Yasmin, described these differing outlooks: “I think the older generation of immigrants … are definitely more quiet on these issues … versus me, I’ve been here, I was born here, I’m here to change it and to make it better.”
Growing numbers and political visibility
The number of Muslims in the United States has risen substantially in recent decades. There are about 5.5 million Muslims of all ages in the country today, up from 2.4 million in 2007, the first time we estimated the size of this population.
In the wake of 9/11, controversies erupted around the country over plans to build more mosques and Muslim community centers. Nevertheless, the number of U.S. mosques has steadily risen from roughly 1,200 in 2000 to nearly 2,800 in 2020, according to data collected by the Faith Communities Today project, a multi-faith coalition affiliated with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
While Muslims have a growing presence in some parts of the country, political appeals to anti-Muslim sentiment are prominent in some circles. In March of this year, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, co-founder of the Sharia-Free America Caucus, posted “No more Muslims…” on X. In August, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted, “Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic.”
Yet Muslim candidates have won nominations in both parties. Dr. Mehmet Oz’s 2022 victory in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania made him the first Muslim nominated by a major party for a Senate seat, despite his eventual loss in the general election. Voters in Michigan’s Democratic primary recently selected Abdul El-Sayed as their nominee for U.S. Senate in 2026. There are now four Muslim members of Congress, with a fifth about to join, compared with zero in 2001. And in New York, where the twin towers fell on 9/11, Zohran Mamdani was inaugurated this year as the city’s first Muslim mayor.About this research
This Pew Research Center data essay examines the diverse experiences of Muslim Americans in the 25 years since al-Qaida’s 9/11 terrorist attacks. It looks at the ways U.S. public opinion toward Muslims and Islam has evolved; Muslim Americans’ perceptions of discrimination as well as support from fellow Americans; and the growing size and political visibility of the U.S. Muslim population.
It relies primarily on a quarter century of Pew Research Center surveys but also draws on federal crime statistics, an independent count of mosques and surveys by other organizations.
Why did we do this?
Pew Research Center does opinion surveys, demographic studies and other research to better understand the experiences of different religious groups in the United States and around the world.
Learn more about Pew Research Center and our religion research, including our work on Muslims and Islam.
How did we do this?
To analyze public opinion of U.S. adults toward Muslims since 9/11, we used data from telephone surveys (2002 to 2015) and from our nationally representative American Trends Panel (2016 to 2026).
To analyze the opinions and experiences of Muslim Americans, we used survey data from late 2001 through mid-2026. This included three in-depth surveys of U.S. Muslims conducted by Pew Research Center in 2007, 2011 and 2017. We also used an earlier study conducted in 2001 by Project MAPS.
Our 2026 data on Muslim Americans came from the Center’s American Trends Panel, supplemented with oversamples from three other nationally representative panels: SSRS’s Opinion Panel, Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel and NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak Panel.
To estimate the size of the U.S. Muslim population in 2026, we used a variant of the methods that Pew Research Center used for estimating this population in 2017, 2011 and 2007, combining information from the Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study with basic demographic information from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) and data from previous Center surveys of the U.S. Muslim population in 2017 and 2011.
Data on anti-Muslim hate crimes comes from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program from 1999 to 2025. Data on the number of mosques in the U.S. comes from the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership.
For more detail, refer to our methodology. Here are the 2026 survey questions used for this analysis and detailed responses.
Who funded this work?
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This essay includes research that was made possible with support from the Trusts, the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the El-Hibri Foundation.
(Feature photo: Leo Patrizi via Getty Images)
Acknowledgments
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This essay includes research that was made possible with support from the Trusts, the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the El-Hibri Foundation.
The analysis was conducted by Besheer Mohamed, principal researcher, who also wrote this essay. The estimates of the size of the U.S. Muslim population were generated by Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer, and checked by Stephanie Kramer, senior researcher. Bill Webster, senior information graphics designer, created the graphics. Beshay Sakla, associate digital producer, produced the report for the web. It was edited by Alan Cooperman, director of religion research, and Jeff Diamant, senior writer/editor. The essay was checked by Becka Alper, senior researcher. The copy editor was David Kent, senior editorial specialist.
In addition, the Center is grateful to Ihsan Bagby, Professor Emeritus at the University of Kentucky, for his assistance with analyzing the mosque census data, and Dennis Gilbert, Professor Emeritus at Hamilton College, for sharing his 2002 survey of U.S. Muslims.
source https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/09/03/25-years-after-9-11-a-portrait-of-muslim-americans
Categories: America, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATION, Muslims, United States, USA