By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The controversy over the proposed Ground Zero mosque and Islamic center is partially responsible for the president’s faltering popularity with voters, a Quinnipiac University poll found Monday.
"Illegal immigration and the proposed mosque near Ground Zero are taking a toll on President Barack Obama’s standing with American voters," said Peter A. Brown, the assistant director at the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Obama’s approval rating measured 46 percent according to a daily Gallup poll released Tuesday. In the last half of August, his approval rate was at an all-time low of 42 percent, the same poll found.
American voters disapprove 44-31 percent of the way President Obama is handling the Ground Zero mosque debate, the Quinnipiac poll found, with 25 percent of the population undecided.
Democrats approve of the president’s actions with concern to the mosque by 52 percent, but 71 percent of Republicans and 47 percent of independent voters disapprove.
Although Democrats are the only political group that approves of the president’s responses, the overall voter response could be damaging to the Democratic Party, the poll suggests.
"The fact that so many Americans think the President does not share their values might worry the White House," Brown said. "Historically, voters tend to see Democratic presidents as more likely to share their values than Republicans."
The divide in opinion of whether the president shares voters’ values could relate to voters’ views of Islam as a religion, according to poll results.
Although 43-34 percent of voters say Obama shares their views of mainstream Islam, Democrats agree and Republicans object. Voters who believe Islam is peaceful say 75 percent that the president shares their views, while those who think Islam encourages violence say 77 percent that his views clash with their own.
Ironically, 70 percent of voters think that the Muslim group has the right to build a mosque and cultural center near Ground Zero, but 63 percent think it is wrong to do so. There is no sub-group that says it is "appropriate" to build the mosque near Ground Zero, the poll points out.
"Voters were told that ‘our constitution and current laws’ blessed the practice, and the prospect of having to change one or both apparently doesn’t faze them," Brown said.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,905 registered voters nationwide from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7. The poll has a margin error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
