Sense of well-being surges among Muslim Americans - poll.

A Gallup study released on August 2 found 60 percent of Muslim Americans surveyed reported they were thriving, slightly higher than for Americans of any other religion except for Jews, who edged them out of the top spot by one percentage point."I'm proud of being Muslim and proud of being Muslim in the United States. I practice Islam here. That's what's the most important thing because, too, being a Muslim is not like you are born in a Muslim family, that's how you're Muslim, no, you have to practice Islam and if you practice Islam, you are a Muslim and doesn't matter where you are," said New Yorker Tahir Sheikh.

Pollsters working on "Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future" noted in particular the rapid surge in positive sentiment among Muslim Americans, with the 19-point increase since 2008, double that of any other major faith group.

"We're okay. We are happy. And we are in Ramadan and we can do everything. Thank God. Everything is okay," Hamam Salem told Reuters as she made her way into the Islamic Cultural Center in New York's Upper East side.

"We don't feel any problems. We are staying here the last 21 years. Personally, I'm a cab driver. I move throughout the city. I don't face any problems. Of course, there may be one or two, there's a different thing maybe, sometimes they make a comment, but it's not so serious," said Mahbuv Ahmed.

Only three percent of Muslim Americans said they were suffering, while 37 percent said they were struggling.

"The most important result from the poll is American Muslims feel their lives are improving. Now in 2011, they are happy and feel life is better than in 2008. Not only that, they are more optimistic about the future," Dalia Mogahed, director of the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, told Reuters.

Authors of the study said they attributed the change in outlook to improved economic conditions and a sense of more political enfranchisement since the election of President Barack Obama, a Christian with Muslim family roots who has reached out to Muslim communities world-wide.

The report said the approval rating for Obama -- a Democrat -- among Muslim Americans was 80 percent, and 46 percent of Muslim Americans identified as Democrats, compared to only nine percent who identified as Republicans.

"It's very clear from the results Muslims are happier with Obama than they were with Bush. In the final months of Bush's term, Muslims only gave him a seven percent approval rating, while now, Muslims give Obama an 80 percent approval rating. So Muslims in America changed their views from seven percent to 80 percent for a positive approval rating of the President. This big difference is very important because Muslims now feel their President represents their views," Mogahed added.

Muslim Americans also felt, to the tune of 64 percent, their standard of living was getting better, up from 55 percent in 2009 and 46 percent in 2008.

Jewish Americans had some views in common with Muslim Americans. A majority of Americans from both faiths agreed on a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jewish Americans were also the most likely religious groups, besides Muslims themselves, to believe Muslim Americans were loyal to the United States. Some 80 percent of Jews said this, compared to 59 percent of Catholics and 56 percent of Protestants.

"About 60 percent of American Muslims say they felt other Americans, or most of them, discriminate against them. Half of Muslims in America said they have experienced forms of discrimination against them in the United States, so they do have problems, but at the same time, they feel this is their country and the future will be better," Mogahed said.

Gallup said the study was one of the most expansive of Muslim American public opinion to date. Instead of finding respondents by selecting people with Islamic-sounding names or going to parts of the country with large Muslim populations, the study is drawn from a random selection of US households.

Other questions raised in the poll included military targeting of civilians -- Muslims were its strongest opponents -- and sympathy for al Qaeda, for which the poll found 92 percent of Muslim Americans did not sympathise with al Qaeda.

Gallup said it interviewed 3,883 self-identified Muslim American adults from January 2008 to April 9, 2011. The confidence level in the data is 95 percent, Gallup said.

The poll was conducted by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center (ADGC), a branch of US-based Gallup. The UAE branch focuses on research into Muslims studies.