Obama job approval highest among Muslims

As a group, Americans of the Muslim faith give President Barack Obama the highest job approval rating of any major religion.

A Gallup Poll of 275,000 adults released late last week finds that while the Democrat’s overall approval rating has dropped across all faiths — even those Americans without any — Muslims continue to approve of him the most. And you’ll never guess which faith group based in Utah thinks the least of the 44th president’s job.

Seventy-eight percent of Muslims (down from 86 percent after Obama’s inauguration) approve of the president’s 19-month job performance, and 24 percent of Mormons do (down from 43).

Catholics’ approval of Obama has fallen from 67 percent to 50. Protestants’ from 58 percent to 43. Jews’ from 77 percent to 61. Other non-Christian religions’ from 74 percent to 64. And atheist/agnostic from 75 percent to 63, believe it or not.

Overall, Gallup finds Americans’ approval of Obama’s job has dropped in the same time span from 63 percent to 48.

While consistently declining across faiths, Obama, who describes his own faith as Christian, has lost most among Mormons and least among Muslims, a group his administration has made special outreach efforts toward.

A separate poll this month found that nearly 1 in 5 Americans thought Obama himself was Muslim, while nearly halfway through his term, nearly half of the country didn’t know what faith Obama holds. The White House clarified shortly thereafter that Obama is Christian.

By Andrew Malcolm

Chicago Tribune