U.S. Jews Religious Group Most Strongly Opposed to Iraq War

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PRINCETON, NJ -- An analysis of Gallup Poll data collected since the beginning of 2005 finds that among the major religious groups in the United States, Jewish Americans are the most strongly opposed to the Iraq war. Catholics and Protestants are more or less divided in their views on the war, while Mormons are the most likely to favor it. Those with no religious affiliation also oppose the war, but not to the same extent that Jewish people do. The greater opposition to the war is not simply a result of high Democratic identification among U.S. Jews, as Jews of all political persuasions are more likely to oppose the war than non-Jews who share the same political leanings.

For this analysis, Gallup combined 13 surveys from the last two-plus years that measured both support for the Iraq war (using Gallup's "mistake for the U.S. to send troops to Iraq" question) and respondent religious affiliation, for a combined sample of more than 12,000 interviews. Across the time period these 13 surveys covered, an average of 52% of Americans opposed the war by saying the United States made a mistake to invade Iraq, and 46% favored the war by saying it did not make a mistake.

The table shows how Iraq war support breaks down among the religious groups for which there are sufficiently large sample sizes to provide stable estimates.

United States Made a Mistake in Sending Troops to Iraq, by Religious Affiliation,
2005-2007 Gallup Polls

Religious Preference	War a mistake	War not a mistake	Sample size
	%	%
All Americans	52	46	12,061