Israel Matzav

'Religion of Peace' sold on 'resistance'

A Pew survey shows that significantly more Muslims support Hamas and Hezbullah than support al-Qaeda. The differences become more pronounced when the Muslims answering the questions are Arabs.

Extremist groups Hamas and Hezbollah continue to receive mixed ratings from Muslim publics. However, opinions of al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, are consistently negative; only in Nigeria do Muslims offer views that are, on balance, positive toward al Qaeda and bin Laden.

Hezbollah receives its most positive ratings in Jordan, where 55% of Muslims have a favorable view; a slim majority (52%) of Lebanese Muslims also support the group, which operates politically and militarily in their country.

But Muslim views of Hezbollah reflect a deep sectarian divide in Lebanon, where the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is threatening violence if a United Nations tribunal indicts Hezbollah members for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. More than nine-in-ten (94%) Lebanese Shia support the organization, while an overwhelming majority (84%) of Sunnis in that country express unfavorable views.

Note that they have no numbers for Pakistan on al-Qaeda and that Turkey's numbers are quite low on all three groups. I wonder why Turkey's Prime Minister is apparently so much more pro-Hamas and Hezbullah than most of his people. One reason might be that the survey was conducted between April 12 and May 7, which was before the Mavi Marmara incident.

But I would attribute the greater support for Hezbullah and Hamas than for al-Qaeda across the board - and especially in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt - to the support for 'resistance' against Israel that generally permeates the Arab world.

Even more striking is the percentage of Muslims that believe that Islam should 'play a role' in politics.

The survey also finds that Muslim publics overwhelmingly welcome Islamic influence over their countries’ politics. In Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan, majorities of Muslims who say Islam is playing a large role in politics see this as a good thing, while majorities of those who say Islam is playing only a small role say this is bad for their country. Views of Islamic influence over politics are also positive in Nigeria, Indonesia, and Lebanon.

Turkish Muslims express more mixed views of the role Islam is playing in their country’s political life. Of the 69% who say the religion plays a large role, 45% see it as good and 38% see it as bad for their country. Among the minority of Muslims who say Islam plays a small role in politics, 26% consider this to be good for Turkey and 33% say it is bad.

The survey results are quite long, and if you can you should read the whole thing. But I do want to point out the results of the question about suicide bombing.

Jordanian and Egyptian Muslims express somewhat more support for suicide bombing than they did in 2009, when 12% and 15%, respectively, said violence against civilians was justified in order to defend Islam. Compared with 2002, however, when the Pew Global Attitudes Project began tracking attitudes on this issue, far fewer across the Muslim world now endorse suicide bombings. For example, the percentage of Muslims saying these types of attacks are often or sometimes justified has declined 35 percentage points in Lebanon (74% in 2002), 25 percentage points in Pakistan (33% in 2002), and 23 percentage points in Jordan (43% in 2002).

Support for suicide bombing does not vary consistently across gender, age, education or income lines. And, for the most part, those who favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion are no more likely than those who oppose it to say violent acts in defense of Islam can be justified. Only in Indonesia and Nigeria is that not the case; 22% of Indonesian Muslims and 39% of Nigerian Muslims who say people who leave their religion should receive the death penalty say suicide bombings are often or sometimes justified, compared with 12% and 29%, respectively, of those who oppose the death penalty for those who leave Islam.

It's too bad they didn't include the 'Palestinian Authority' or Hamastan in the survey. The answers to these questions from those populations would be especially interesting.

Labels: al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbullah, Muslim extremism, Religion of Peace

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:53 AM