by Bob Unruh

A series of polls has revealed that young adults, those ages 18-24, have a stunning perspective on Islam's Sharia laws, with 43% holding a "positive" view.

This would be the laws that advocate chopping hands off thieves, stoning those involved in adultery and tossing homosexuals off of buildings.

It is a report at the Federalist that explained Justin Haskins, of Our Republic, which did some of the polling, cited a lack of understanding about the "value [of] the Constitution and the protections it provides."

He said, "Too many have been taught to see constitutional limits as obstacles to progress, especially when those limits stand in the way of policies they believe would help groups they view as oppressed. Because Muslims are widely perceived by young people as an oppressed or marginalized group, I suspect many default to a sympathetic view of policies associated with Islam without seriously considering whether those policies are compatible with constitutional freedoms. The irony is that, in doing so, they may be undermining the very rights they claim to care about."

The polling, from Our Republic and Rasmussen, showed "a quarter of 18-35 voters polled would support a community implementing Sharia law as the legal code for the entire town, city, or state if the majority of residents living there desired its adoption."

The polling said, "Overall, 21% of likely voters said they have a mostly or somewhat positive opinion of Sharia, compared with 57% who have a negative opinion. Positive views were much higher among younger Americans, including 43% of voters ages 18–24 and 39% of those ages 25–29."

The polling cited a "generational divide" over Sharia, as seniors had a much higher level of opposition.

"Sharia is a system of Islamic religious principles and law, derived primarily from the Quran and the teachings and practices of Muhammad, that addresses matters including religious practice, personal conduct, family life, finance, and often civil and criminal law," the pollsters explained.

"Young voters were also substantially more likely to support requiring public schools to teach children about the benefits of Sharia. Twenty-four percent of voters ages 18–24 and 31% of those ages 25–29 support such a requirement, compared with just 3% of voters age 40 and older."

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There was high opposition, 83%, to the idea of allowing a community to democratically eliminate democracy, and vote in the imposition of such a code. "However, roughly one-quarter of voters ages 18–35 said they would support allowing a community to adopt Sharia under those circumstances."

Further large numbers of Americans responded that America's relationship with Israel, the prominent democracy in the Middle East, was a greater threat than Sharia.

"Asked to compare Sharia with traditional Christianity, 55% of all likely voters said Sharia poses the greater threat to America's future, while 13% selected traditional Christianity. Among Democrats, 34% selected Sharia, 16% selected traditional Christianity, and 41% said neither poses a threat," the polling said.

The survey of 1,026 likely U.S. voters was conducted September 20, 2026, by Rasmussen Reports and Our Republic. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence."

Our Republic said, "More than four in 10 voters ages 18 to 24 have a positive opinion of Sharia, nearly one-third of voters ages 25 to 29 support requiring public schools to teach children about its benefits, and roughly one-quarter of voters ages 18 to 35 would allow an American community to adopt Sharia as its legal code if a majority supported it."

According to the Federalist, "These findings are particularly relevant as the world watches students in France torch the country, helped by young denizens who also express a growing support of Sharia law, with that support being driven by a Muslim population embracing a strict religious observance of Islam. The polling stateside — coupled with recent numbers from the State Department noting 'refugee admissions from 45 majority-Muslim countries stood at 21,096 in December 2024 — Joe Biden's final month in office' — suggests that similar to what's happening in France, support for Sharia might be imported alongside immigration from Muslim nations."

Further, the report highlighted the "willingness of American youth, raised with protected rights under the law, to forgo those rights, even as they conflict with the constitutionally protected rights of the individual and of a people protected from the tyranny of authoritarianism, in service to what Haskins calls 'the oppressor-versus-oppressed framework associated with Critical Theory.'"

The report warns of an alliance between Islamists and Marxists, even though their ideology is opposite, to being "bound together by a common mission to tear down the traditional American way of life."