Despite all the attention given Iran in the news the last third of a century, most Americans still don’t know that Shiites are the majority there,
A recent poll asked Americans questions about people and things in the news to test their knowledge of current events. It didn’t come as a surprise that Americans didn’t score too well.
But they showed surprisingly great ignorance on Iran considering all the talk about Sunnis and Shias that has gone on for decades in the United States.
The test was conducted last month by Pew Research, a major polling firm. It asked 12 multiple-choice questions about subjects in the news.
On the Iran question, the correct responses ranked a miserable 9th of the 12.
The question asked, “In which of the following [four] Muslim countries are there more Shia Muslims than Sunni Muslims?” A total of 42 percent of those asked didn’t even hazard a response. But 29 percent correctly chose Iran, while 16 percent went with Afghanistan, 12 percent said Saudi Arabia and 2 percent chose Indonesia.
Back in 2007, when US troops filled Iraq, the same pollster asked Americans whether Sunnis, Shias or Kurds formed the largest part of the Iraqi population. Only 21 percent pleaded ignorance, while 41 percent correctly identified Shias, 30 percent named Sunnis and 8 percent picked the Kurds.
Some thought the presence of US troops prompted more Americans to pay attention to Iraq and know more about it than Iran.
Others suggested that decades of stories about Iran have made the American public jaded and that few pay any attention to news stories about Iran any more.
It isn’t just a matter of foreign issues versus domestic issues. A question about the Islamic State drew the second largest number of correct responses and one about Ukraine got the third largest. The question on the Islamic State asked: “The Islamic militant group known as ISIS currently controls territory in which of these countries?” A mere 16 percent didn’t hazard a guess while 67 percent correctly chose Iraq, 10 percent named Pakistan, 5 percent picked Kuwait and 3 percent said Egypt.
The three questions where Americans proved more ignorant than they did about Iran were all about US domestic issues. Only 24 percent could pick Janet Yellen’s name from a list of four names as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Only 20 percent knew that Social Security was the federal program with the largest budget. (One-third picked foreign aid.) And only 20 percent knew the percentage of Americans who live below the poverty line. (Most thought it was far worse than it really is.)