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Survey: Muslim Support for Suicide Bombings Declining

This morning’s Washington Post reports on the results of a recent Pew Global Attitudes survey, showing that most of the world’s Muslims reject suicide bombings and violence against civilians. The poll, conducted between April 6 and May 29, surveyed 45,239 people in 46 countries. Not surprisingly, Palestinians were the most enthusiastic supporters of suicide bombings: 70 percent of them responded that such attacks are “sometimes” or “often” justified. The countries showing the least amount of support? Egypt (8 percent) and Pakistan (9 percent). The survey also suggested that, in many countries, enthusiasm for suicide attacks has fallen sharply since 2002. At that time, 74 percent of Lebanese, 43 percent of Jordanians, and 26 percent of Indonesians agreed that at least some suicide bombings could be justified; today, those statistics stand at 34 percent, 23 percent, and 10 percent, respectively. Pew also discovered waning support for Osama Bin Laden in many of the same countries. The most precipitous decline was in Jordan, where just 20 percent of respondents voiced confidence in the Al Qaeda leader, down from 56 percent in 2002.

Comments

Well, declining support for terror is certainly a good thing, by any standard. However, even if the entire Muslim world dropped to that low of 8% of the 1.2 billion Muslims on the planet, we'd be left with 96 million people in support of terrorism by suicide bombing. That still leaves me a wee bit nervous.

Posted by: Misanthropic Scott on 07/25/07 at 8:50 AM

The Muslim's imaginary friend might change his mind again though. I'm more worried that the Mormon’s or evangelical's imaginary friend might decide suicide bombing is a good idea.

Posted by: John on 07/25/07 at 10:00 AM

Although the numbers are still alarmingly high, this represents a positive trend and I think the numbers will continue to go down as the lunatic fringe shows just how crazy they really are

Posted by: Tariq Nelson on 07/25/07 at 9:00 PM

It's a great thing, of course - but can we really believe it?

After all, here's what's coming out of the horse's own mouth:

The Truth About Islam
http://islamwatchers.blogspot.com

Posted by: Suziq on 07/25/07 at 9:52 PM

John,

It wouldn't take much. The IRA already bombs people. Abortion clinic bombings have happened in the U.S. It's not much of a reach to go over to the self-sacrificing martyr side of the delusion once you've already decided that murder is OK.

Posted by: Misanthropic Scott on 07/26/07 at 9:27 AM

Scott, look at all the people the racist Jews kill everyday in the occupied west bank. Free Palestine. Look at all the people Moses killed. When will the killing ever end by these racist Jews?

Posted by: Mamood on 07/27/07 at 4:46 PM

Suziq, your anti-Muslim site is similar in character to "Jewwatch.com".

Posted by: Karoosh on 07/28/07 at 2:39 PM

Mamood,

All religion is evil. It twists people's morals into doing horrific things. I do not make a distinction between the various sub-sects of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion. Racists come in all shapes sizes colors and creeds. Jews and Arabs are one race, however, known as semites. So, differences between these two virtually identical peoples are due solely to religious bigotry on both sides rather than to racism. The short answer is always that religion kills folks dead.

Would people kill each other without religion? Certainly. We are a violent species. But, the vehemence and fervor of the killing are increased dramatically by religion. There's nothing like knowing that you are Right with a capital R and have god on your side to make killing seem like a good thing. Yecch!!!

Let's try to push for an age of reason among all people of the world. There is no Us and Them. We are all Us. Religion is dragging us back to the dark ages.

Posted by: Misanthropic Scott on 07/29/07 at 9:50 AM