From Frank Newport, Gallup:
PRINCETON, NJ — Muslim Americans continue to give President Barack Obama the highest job approval rating of any major religious group in the U.S., while Mormons give the president the lowest ratings.
According to Gallup tracking polls, while the President’s job approval rating has fallen by 15 percentage points between the first half of 2009 and the first seven months of this year, the differences among religious groups have held fairly constant across time.
The pattern that pertained when Obama first took office — high ratings among Muslims, those with no religious identity, those identifying with non-Christian religions, and Jews; and lower ratings among Protestants and Mormons — continues today.
American Muslims — in the news recently with the controversy over proposed plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero in New York City — have given Obama his highest ratings in all three time periods: 86% in the first half of 2009, 83% in the second half of 2009, and 78% so far this year. Mormons have given Obama his lowest ratings across time, dropping from 43% in the first half of 2009 to 24% this year.
