This is not exactly hot news, but it is news and I think it's worth thinking about. According to a recent poll by the Washington Post, more Americans (46%) are having an unfavorable view of Islam, in particular that it encourages violence (33%).

I think this increase is due to the negative information put forth by the media and the politicians, especially recently. Islam, from what I have heard, encourages peace and acceptance, not violence. The media chooses to pay more attention to the extremists instead of Muslims who oppose violence caused by these extremists.

If Islam really encourages violence, then why do we not hear more about the violence caused by Muslims in Indonesia, the country with the largest number of Islams?

We hear plenty about it down here thanks very much. There's been numerous bombings over the last few years one which killed 86 Australians (among the many). Then there's all the religious conflicts on Aceh with churches being burned etc.

May be it is due to :-

1. Mass number of terrorist attacks in past few years.
2. Most of them were Islamic origin.
3. Most of them used the reason of their religion for them.
4. Popularity of things like Jihad where they term terrorism as Holy war.

On the other hand, I live in a place which is flocked with Islamic people. There is a masjid (mosque) within the radius of 100 meters from my house.
And there we never had any problem ever. The media and movies here all are trying to erradicate the misconception.

The main misconception people have is, Islamic people do not belong to any country but only to their religion. And hence, they also think they are not patriotic.

Whereas, this is not true. I am sure, your countries defence team has a good number of islamic people who risk their lives to protect your country

That's really horrible to read, as someone who's studying Islam at school. First of all, the word Islam means peace. Lesser Jihad is Holy War- when a religious leader declares war, and when the purpose of the war is not to gain land/money etc. Greater Jihad is the fight inside yourself... the daily struggle, e.g. during Ramadan when your body wants to eat but your soul doesn't.

Of course there are going to be extremists, just like there are in every religion. The majority of Muslims are respectful, peaceful people and don't deserve to be stereotyped like that.

The negative perception of Islam is increasing because of many reasons if there is such perception at all.

1. So many attacks here and there, from Bali to New York by Muslim terrorists who justified their stand by claiming to be doing what Allah wanted them to do. This is very bad. Allah would never command them to attack others in these manners.

2. Religion seems to be the first priority in the life of many Muslims. And any other things come later. This kind of portrayal isn't benefitting any because whether you are muslim, christian, hindu, jews, etc one has to live with others.

3. When such attacks take place, when Al-qaeda and other terrorists attack take place we do not hear any high profile muslim clerics/priests coming out to denounce such attacks. In fact, some I heard glorify such actions. This gives a very bad impression to others.

I do not blame media much for this situation. Media are rather trying to unify the people of the world by bringing the truth and terrorists should be termed terrorists only. This should be clear in the minds of Muslims and their priests alike, which they do, I believe. I have many muslim friends and they are all peace loving and good human beings like others. Those terrorists act should be condemned and be isolated, not to be branded as Muslims.

its always those that shout loudest that get the biggest press coverage. The vast majority of Muslim are peace loving and are disgusted what happens "in their name". However the media manipulates the few incidents of terror and radicalism into a general statement of aggression on the side of Islam. Out of the nearly 1.000.000.000 Muslims in the world - there is only a small percentage that distorts Islam in a way that it results in terror.

In most situations I'd have no problems with this line of argument but in the case of 'those shouting loudest', they're not only shouting, they're killing people too. It's a bit hard to point the finger at the media and saying it's all just a beat up when people are getting killed.

Neither of the religion in its original form can be regarded as bad. they all preach to love people and live in harmony with society. But Islamic clerics in past happened to build masses with corrupt 'Jehadi' mentality. Their idea was to conquer the world and spread Islam by unacceptable means. That is what paying now. With muslim populations getting violent day by day, becoming intolerable to other culture & scociety, converting minorities in their viscinity by force, and increasing their population for misdeeds, there is no doubt other socoeties and religions will turn against them.
This is called 'xenophobia'. A hatred to someone looking stranger. Why stranger, because they don't behave rationally.
Nobody knows how that could be stopped? Possibly with World war III???