Without entering current events or political soapboxing, what was the average American’s opinion on Islam between 1945 and the 1970’s, and how much did they actually know about the religion’s beliefs and history?
Also, as a followup question: how much would this opinion change based upon the education, race, or political affiliation of an American?
BTW: This is a repost of a question I asked that didn't receive an answer.
This is not a question I've looked into specifically, but I can make some general comments:
I'm not aware of any polling on this question going back that far. The closest I can think of are Gallup polls asking whether Americans generally favor Israelis or Arabs in the Arab-Israeli conflict (Americans have consistently favored the Israelis.) But obviously that's at best a proxy for views of Islam.
It's also worth noting that for most of this period Americans would have been unlikely to encounter a Muslim. Today, Muslims account for about 1% of the population, in that period the figure would have been much lower. Perhaps the most prominent American Muslims would have been members of the Nation of Islam, at least until Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X themselves embraced orthodox Islam.