A new YouGov poll released ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks suggests a notable share of Democrats believe the country spends too much attention on remembering that day, with more than one in eight saying Americans focus excessively on 9/11.
The survey, published Monday, also found that 72% of Democrats believe Muslims in the United States have faced worse treatment than members of other religions since the attacks.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon. Passengers and crew fought back on the fourth plane, which went down in a rural Pennsylvania field.
Asked whether Americans today place too much or too little emphasis on the memory of the tragic events, 13% of registered Democrats responded that the public focuses too much on Sept. 11, according to the poll.
Only 19% of Democrats said the nation does not pay enough attention to remembering 9/11, while that view was held by 43% of Republicans.
The poll also showed a partisan divide over whether Sept. 11 should be made a national holiday honoring the victims, with 62% of Republicans supporting the idea compared with 43% of Democrats.
Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say the legacy of the 2001 attacks continues to heavily influence how Muslims are treated in America.
Overall, 71% of Democrats said Sept. 11 is still shaping the treatment of Muslims in the US, compared with 42% of Republicans who said the same.
Some 72% of Democrats said that Muslims have been treated worse than people of other religions since the September 11 attacks, compared to 28% of Republicans who feel the same.
Democrats are also more likely to blame right-wing extremists for the majority of violent attacks in the US since Sept. 11, 2001, than left-wing or Islamic extremists.
Some 26% of Republicans and only 2% of Democrats blame left-wing extremists for the greatest number of violent attacks, while 29% of Republicans and 14% of Democrats say Islamic extremism has been responsible for more violence.
But almost half of Democrats (45%) versus 6% of Republicans say right-wing extremists have committed the greatest number of violent attacks in the US since September 11.
