Support for Bin Laden, Violence Down Among Muslims, Poll Says

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Support for Bin Laden, Violence Down Among Muslims, Poll Says

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07/17/2005 10:35 AM

Support for Bin Laden, Violence Down Among Muslims, Poll Says

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/14/AR2005071401030.html

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Post's Wright on Terrorism Poll

The Washington Post's Robin

Wright discusses a recent poll

revealing a drop in Muslim support for

terrorism.

Support for Bin Laden, Violence Down Among Muslims,

Poll Says

By Robin Wright

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, July 15, 2005; Page A13

Osama bin Laden's standing has dropped significantly in some pivotal Muslim

countries, while support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence has "declined

dramatically," according to a new survey released yesterday.

Predominantly Muslim populations in a sampling of six North African, Middle Eastern

and Asian countries share to a "considerable degree" Western concerns about Islamic

extremism, according to the poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted by

the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization.

"Most Muslim publics are expressing

less support for terrorism than in the

past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden

has declined markedly in some countries,

and fewer believe suicide bombings that

target civilians are justified in the

defense of Islam," the poll concluded.

The one exception is attitudes toward suicide bombings of U.S and Western targets in

Iraq, a subject on which Muslims were divided. Roughly half of Muslims in Lebanon,

Jordan and Morocco said such attacks are justifiable, while sizable majorities in

Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia disagreed. Yet, support for suicide bombings in Iraq

still declined by as much as 20 percent compared with a poll taken last year.

The results, which also reveal widespread support for democracy, show how

profoundly opinions have changed in parts of the Muslim world since Pew took

similar surveys in recent years. The poll attributed the difference in attitudes toward

extremism to both the terrorist attacks in Muslim nations and the passage of time since

the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In May 2003, many Muslims "saw a worldwide threat to Islam and [bin Laden]

represented opposition to the West and the United States," said Andrew Kohut,

president of the Pew Research Center and project director. "Tempers have since

cooled."

The poll results are a rare piece of good news for the Bush administration, which has

faced difficulties seeing gains in its two top foreign policy goals -- combating

terrorism and promoting democracy in the Islamic world.

"These are eye-catching results, but not surprising," said Augustus Richard Norton, a

Middle East specialist at Boston University. "Muslims, like non-Muslims, are plugged

into the world. . . . It is one thing to be caught up in the supposed glamour of attacking

the superpower or global bully, but it is quite another to have to pay the consequences

economically, politically -- not to mention personally. This is what has happened in

places like Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey, where many people now see

extremist Islam as a threat to their lives, not a fantasy game of kick Uncle Sam."

The survey, conducted from April through mid-June, before the London bombings,

polled 17,000 people in the six Muslim-dominated countries and in 11 major Western

and Asian nations, including the United States. They were asked about their attitudes

toward Islam, Muslim nations and extremist violence. More than 6,200 interviews in

Muslim countries were conducted in person, while interviews in the West and in Asia

were done by telephone and in person.

The new poll also found that growing majorities or pluralities of Muslims now say that

democracy can work in their countries and is not just a Western ideology. Support for

democracy was in the 80 percent range in Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco. It

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