From Muslim to Atheist…

[Jontom10]

Congratualtions.

Welcome to the most hated and distrusted minority in the world.

and the only minority in the Western world to not have any legal protection against hate crimes perpetrated against us.

To the OP, congratulations. Welcome to the real world, now go and let you free mind explore.

[Historicity]

Atheist in the united states are one of the most hated and distrusted minorities.  Albeit, thats not far from how muslims are viewed in the US.

Yeah, Kodanshi, note that the first Muslim was recently elected to Congress, Keith Ellison.

There has only been one atheist in Congress, Pete Stark.  But he wasn't elected as an atheist.  He came out of the closet.

Moslems are trusted 16% more than atheists (in Minnesota anyway).  The question was phrased, "Would you let your daughter marry a ..." 

http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2006/UR_RELEASE_MIG_2816.html

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/edgell/home/Strib%20Atheist%20Faith%20and%20Values.html

90% of respondents thought whites and blacks could share their vision of society. About 80% said the same of Hispanics, Jews and conservative Christians. More than 70% said it of immigrants, and 64% said it of Muslims. Atheists had the lowest rating at 54%.

Followup interviews in 2004 found that many people "believe atheists have no sense of community and promote cultural elitism and the almighty dollar," Edgell said.

Such perceptions "tell us nothing about atheists themselves," she said. Atheists account for only 3% of the population, "so most people don't know any," she said.

Edgell said atheists are scapegoated in ways Catholics, Jews and Communists once were -- they are perceived to be on the other side of what Americans view as a symbolic moral boundary. "They're associated with moral and social disorder," she said.

Since you're not American you don't recognize the phrase (used at least thru the 1950s) "But would you want your daughter to marry one of them?"  It's was a polite Northern way of saying that civil rights for Negroes had gone far enough.

Also see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism

Here are their maps about the depths of belief in North America and Europe:

[Deus ex Machina]

One minor niggle - those two maps asked different questions, and as such, may not be directly comparable. It may seem like a nitpick, but as I recall, there have been separate surveys in the UK asking about religious identification and about belief in God. In the former, more than 70% identified themselves as Christian. In the latter, around half said they believed in God. So the number identifying with a religion does, it would appear, have a tendency to outstrip the number professing a theistic belief. It's likely that cultural identity has an effect there.

Edit - and they're 14 years apart!