Thursday, April 26, 2007

What the Muslim street thinks....America is out to destroy Islam and Al Qaeda has some good points


World Public Opinion is a respected organization known for it's fairly straightforward polling of public opinion in various countries on different issues.In this new poll, they surveyed the opinions of the populations of four almost entirely Muslim countries - Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia and found some interesting if not surprising trends.

Large majorities agree that the US is in a war to weaken and divide Islam. While Western politicians may use euphemisms like ` a war on terror', a vast majority of Muslims see it as a war between Islam and the West. A large majority also favor attacks on US forces, want US forces out of Islamic countries and favor the further Islamization of their countries:



























































What's more, three in ten - 30% - view Osama bin-Laden and al Qaeda favorably, although that number falls when asked if attacks on civilians are justified as seen above. However, according to the pollsters, less than one in four believes al Qaeda was responsible for September 11th attacks.

On average, about three out of four agree with seeking to “require Islamic countries to impose a strict application of sharia,” and to “keep Western values out of Islamic countries.” Two-thirds favor the idea “unify all Islamic counties into a single Islamic state or caliphate.”

It would have been very interesting for the pollsters to survey Muslims in Britain, and the US on these same questions.

I recommend to you again JoshuaPundit's 20-60-20 formulae - 20% hardline jihad supporters, 60% who are basically passive but will go wherever the flow dictates, and 20% who are strongly opposed.

If the numbers on this poll are consistent among Muslims everywhere, then we have a huge problem and a major struggle ahead.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes we do have a huge problem. The Islamists have a false opinion of us. This is the result of decades of the allowing anti-American propaganda to go virtually unchallenged. Part of winning the Global War on Terrorism will include a military component, part will include a diplomatic component, and the other part will include getting our true message out. Getting our message out may be the most important of all.

The Arab world has been told lies about us. We will need to do a better job of countering those lies, if we are going to win.