Almost half of American Muslims hold ‘favorable’ view towards Hamas, poll finds

According to the poll, just 26 percent of Muslims hold a favorable view of the Israeli people.

By Corey Walker, The Algemeiner

Nearly half of American Muslims hold a favorable view of Hamas, the terrorist group that has controlled Gaza, according to a new Pew Research
Center poll published Thursday.

Some 44 percent of American Muslims indicated a “favorable” opinion of Hamas—far outstripping every other religious group surveyed—according to the poll, which surveyed 12,574 US adults from May 4-17, 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.

Pew oversampled Jewish and Muslim adults to allow for reliable comparisons between the two groups.

The finding suggests a deepening political divide over the war in Gaza, even as the survey was conducted before Hamas’ July 6 announcement that it was dissolving its formal governing body over the territory—a step that stopped short of disarmament, one of the central demands of the US-brokered ceasefire plan.

According to the survey, American Muslims represent an outlier within the broader US public in their views of Hamas.

By comparison, four percent of White evangelical Protestants, six percent of White Protestants who are not evangelical, 17 percent of Black Protestants, eight percent of Catholics, two percent of Jews, and 11 percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans hold a favorable opinion of Hamas.

The findings also echo a separate 2024 poll commissioned by the UK-based Henry Jackson Society, which found that 46 percent of British Muslims support Hamas.

Hamas, which seized control of Gaza from the rival Fatah movement in 2007, launched a massacre throughout southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people, kidnapping 250 others, and engaging in mass rape.

Israel subsequently launched a military campaign to dismantle the terror group and rescue the hostages — an effort that caused widespread destruction across the enclave and has also strained relations between the American Jewish and Muslim communities.

Earlier this month, on July 6, Hamas announced it was dissolving its Gaza governing body and transferring administrative authority to a technocratic committee backed by the United Nations, though the group has so far declined to disarm.

Among the poll’s other findings are widely disparate views in how American Muslims see Israel and its people compared with the general US public.

Just 26 percent of Muslims hold a favorable view of the Israeli people.

By contrast, at least half of every other religious group surveyed — 83 percent of Jews, 74 percent of White evangelical Protestants, 55 percent of White Protestants who are not evangelical, 51 percent of Catholics, and 50 percent of Black Protestants — view the Israeli people favorably.

The survey also finds that Muslims are the only religious group in which about half hold a favorable view of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which controls Judea and Samaria: 50 percent of Muslims view the PA favorably, compared with just 31 percent of Black Protestants, 20 percent of Catholics, 20 percent of White Protestants who are not evangelical, 10 percent of White evangelical Protestants, and 10 percent of Jews.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-governance in the West Bank and has long faced accusations of corruption, has for years run a so-called “pay-for-slay” program that rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis.

Under the policy, the PA makes payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs” killed in attacks on Israelis, and Palestinians injured while carrying out terrorist attacks.

The poll’s findings lay bare a growing rift over Israel and the Palestinians heading into the 2026 midterm election cycle.

Muslim politicians such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) have grown increasingly vocal in their opposition to Israel over the nearly three years since the Gaza war began.

Several of these politicians have been criticized for declining to directly condemn terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah while accusing Israel of “genocide.”

As Muslim politicians continue to gain prominence in the US and across Europe, the substantial support for terrorist groups and hostility toward Israel documented within the American Muslim community may carry consequences for US foreign policy.