At Editor & Publisher, I read tonight about a new Gallup poll concerning Americans’ attitudes toward their fellow Americans, who happen to be Muslim.

Here are the sad numbers…

22% say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbor. [Well, I guarantee I wouldn’t want to live next to you either, Mr.& Mrs. 22%.]

34% believe that U.S. Muslims back al-Qaeda. [Isn’t it a bit scary to think that there may in fact be 12% of the population that wouldn’t have a problem chatting with their al-Qaeda supporter neighbors in their driveway while getting their morning paper?]

Only 49% believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States. [Let’s hazard a guess at which political party most of these 49% feel a closer affinity with, shall we?]

39% admit that they hold some “prejudice” against Muslims. [Ya think? You mean being bombarded with right-wing talk radio hate-mongers and listening to Bush pledge to defeat those “muslim fascists” leads to a little homespun bigotry?]

44% percent say Muslim’s religious views are too “extreme.” [Why does it seem likely that a big chunk of this number might actually have fairly fundamentalist religious views that many U.S. Muslims would consider “extreme”?]

And now, perhaps the most disturbing…

39% believe that U.S. Muslims here should carry special I.D. [Holy Christ.]

But…

Americans who actually know a Muslim person are more sympathetic. [Wow, you mean turning off Neal Boortz or Rush Limbaugh for once and actually living in the real world can make you a bit more reasonable and open-minded? Who knew?]