Census Encourages Wary Muslims to Complete Surveys

April 13, 2010

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Beliefnet

Wire Service: AP

https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/news/2010/04/census-encourages-wary-muslims

 

Nine years of scrutiny have made some American Muslims wary of the federal government, and that has the U.S. Census bureau working to make sure its crucial survey doesn't become a casualty of fear.

Muslims are not the only group the agency has identified as needing special attention, but they may be among the likeliest to shun the mail-in questionnaires. America's Muslim population includes large numbers of recent immigrants, and community leaders say nearly a decade of bearing the brunt of the country's post Sept. 11 terrorism fears have taken their toll.

"You still have people in a kind of paranoid state of mind," said Khalilah Sabra, director of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation in North Carolina.