The remaining 60% have their head in a place the sun doesn’t shine.

Washington (CNN) — Americans are divided over whether Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers, according to a new national poll. A Pew Research Center survey also indicates wide partisan and generational divides on the issue.

The poll indicates that 40 percent of the public says that Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence among its followers, with 42 percent disagreeing and nearly one in four unsure. Those numbers are little changed over the past few years, but a Pew poll conducted in March 2002, six months after the September 11th terrorist attacks, indicated that by a two to one margin, Americans said Islam was not more likely to encourage violence.

The poll’s Wednesday release comes one day before a scheduled congressional hearing into the alleged radicalization of some Muslims in the U.S. The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Republican Rep. Peter King of New York, says Thursday’s hearing is necessary to explore, among other things, the extent to which al Qaeda is trying to influence and indoctrinate U.S. Muslims.

According to the poll, conservative Republicans questioned in the poll by a 66 to 21 percent margin say Islam encourages violence more than other religions. It’s almost a mirror image for self-described liberal Democrats, who by a 61 to 29 percent margin say Islam is not more likely than other religions to promote violence. By a 44 to 38 percent margin, independent voters say that Islam does not encourage violence more than other religions.

Here’s a list (and it’s a long one) of all jihad-related terror attacks for 2011.