TruthBook Religious News Blog

Wednesday, 25 July, 2007

Muslims around the world increasingly reject suicide bombings and other violence against civilians in defense of Islam, according to a new international poll dealing with how the world's population judges their lives, countries and national institutions.

A wide ranging survey of international attitudes in 47 countries by the Pew Research Center also reported that in many of the countries where support for suicide attacks has declined, there has also has been decreasing support for al-Qaida leader Osama bin-Laden.

The 95-page survey found that surging economic growth in many developing countries has encouraged people in these countries to express satisfaction with their personal lives, family income and national conditions, said Andrew Kohut, the center's director.

"It's a pro-globalization set of findings," Kohut said.

Most notably, the survey finds large and growing number of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere rejecting Islamic extremism. Ten mainly Muslim countries were surveyed along with the Palestinian territories, as well as five African nations with large Muslim populations.

For example, the percentage of Jordanian Muslims who have confidence in bin Laden as a world leader fell 36 percentage points to 20 percent since 2003 while the proportion who say suicide bombing is sometimes or always justified dropped 20 percent points to 23 percent. Other countries where support for bin Laden declined are Lebanon, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and Kuwait.

The report said support for such bombings and terror tactics has dropped since 2002 in seven of the eight countries where data were available. In Lebanon, the proportion of Muslims who say suicide attacks are often or sometimes justified fell to 34 percent from 79 percent while just 9 percent of Pakistanis believe suicide bombings can be justified often or sometimes, down from 33 percent in 2002 and a high of 41 percent in 2004.

But support for suicide bombings is widespread among Palestinians, the report said, with 41 percent saying such attacks are often justified while another 29 percent say they can sometimes be justified. It found that only six percent of Palestinians - the smallest in any Muslim public surveyed - say such attacks are never justified.

Amid continuing sectarian violence in Iraq, the survey found there is broad concern among Muslims that tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are not limited to that country and represent a growing problem for the Muslim world more generally.

Eighty-eight percent of Lebanese and 73 percent of Kuwaitis _ along with smaller majorities or pluralities of Muslims elsewhere in the Middle East _ said Sunni-Shiite tensions represent a growing problem for the Muslim world, the report said.

Globally, Pew's survey shows a clear linkage between economic conditions and views of national conditions.

This trend is particularly evident in Latin America and Eastern Europe, but China and India also stand out, the report said.

While Africans now express a greater sense of personal progress than in 2002, personal contentment remains low in all African countries relative to other parts of the world.

In Western Europe, Swedes and Spaniards express broad satisfaction with national conditions as well as with their governments and leaders.

"In contrast," the report said, "people in France and Italy, which have experienced little economic growth since 2002, are critical of their nation's course and their governments."

The French were polled before Nicolas Sarkozy replaced Jacques Chirac as president in May and gave jobs to several opposition Socialists in his Cabinet.

In China, where per capita gross domestic product, has increased 58 percent since 2002, its people expressed much more satisfaction than in 2002_ 83 percent now compared to 48 percent. The Chinese also give near universal support for the national government, 89 percent, and say the government has a very good or somewhat good influence on the way things are going.

But the pollsters in China were not able to ask respondents to express opinions about President Hu Jintao.

The polls _ with a sampling error of 2 to 4 percentage points, depending on the sampling size _ were taken in various countries from mid-April to the end of May, and involved about 1,000 samples in most countries. More interviews were conducted in India and China while fewer than 1,000 were carried out in European countries.

Source: Washington Post

Labels: Islamic, Muslims, Pew Research Center survey, religion, suicide bombings, terrorism

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Study suggests Muslims in America more mainstream than in Europe

By Robert Marus
Published May 24, 2007

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- One of the most comprehensive studies of its kind suggests that Muslims in the United States are far better assimilated into the nation's culture -- and far less likely to espouse extremist beliefs -- than their counterparts in Europe.

The stark contrasts between the two groups may have something to do with the American traditions of religious freedom and church-state separation, according to experts in the field.

And a majority of all American Muslims surveyed believe it has become harder to be a Muslim in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Overall, the study of more than 1,000 Muslims living in the United States found that 78 percent of adult Muslims think suicide bombings are "never justified" in defense of Islam -- a far higher percentage than among European Muslims. Nearly two-thirds of Muslim Americans believe there is no conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society.

The survey, titled "Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream," also found that American Muslims have income and education levels comparable to the population as a whole, despite the fact that two-thirds of adult American Muslims are immigrants.

While only 13 percent of all American Muslims believe that suicide bombings could be occasionally justified in defense of Islam, that figure was 25 percent among those under 30. In addition, native-born African-American Muslims are far more likely than the general Muslim population to have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.

And while American Muslims are more likely than the population as a whole to believe that most Americans can be successful if they work hard enough, African-American Muslims are much less likely to agree with that proposition.

Nonetheless, American Muslims' tolerance of suicide bombers is much lower than corresponding figures for European Muslims, according to Pew surveys conducted last year. In the United Kingdom and Spain, about one-fourth of all Muslims said suicide bombings could be justified, while a third of French Muslims agreed.

One significant difference between American Muslims and the population as a whole is their support for the U.S.-led "war on terrorism." A 55-percent majority of interviewees believes the battle is not "a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism," while only 26 percent believe it is.

In a similar vein, less than 50 percent of American Muslims believe the United States made the right decision to use force to remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. A wide majority of the overall U.S. population believes attacking Afghanistan was justified.

Overall, however, the survey suggests Muslims are integrating into society as rapidly as did previous waves of immigrants, while their European counterparts have encountered much more difficulty in integrating into society.

Diana Butler Bass, a religion scholar who writes for a religion-and-politics blog jointly sponsored by Beliefnet and Sojourners magazine, said the American tradition of religious liberty explains the vast difference between Muslim life in parts of the world that are otherwise culturally similar.

"With its contrast between the U.S. and Europe, the Pew study suggests that the separation of church and state works to create a more generous, open, and safer society in regard to terrorism," Bass wrote in a May 23 entry on the “God's Politics” blog (www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics).

"At its best, America has a heritage of Christian liberality, intellectually influenced by Christianity but open to a wide range of ideas and peoples through the practice of religious toleration," she said.

Bass concluded by saying that some conservatives' appeals to a unified "Christian America" as "the way to defeat Islamic extremism" are proven misguided by the Pew study. "The path to peace between Christians and Muslims is that of religious freedom, separation of church and state, and appreciative toleration in the best traditions of liberality," she wrote.

Labels: Muslims, suicide bombings, survey, terrorism, Unites States