Less than 25% of Muslims blame al-Qaeda for 9/11 attacks

[Irish Caesar]

Why would it be difficult to believe?

Most people like the idea of free religion in the abstract...it's only when someone starts building a mosque next door that people get uncomfortable. And as for democracy...I think you'd find that to be a popular option among Muslims, especially in the Middle East, where relatively secular dictators often keep Islamic parties out of power. They probably wouldn't want Democracy as the US implements it, but the idea itself is no doubt compelling, at least in the short term.

It's difficult to believe because it seems democratically elected Islamic parties and freedom of religion may not be compatible in the long term. I don't doubt that people would rather live under a democratic government than a dictatorship, but the Middle East in particular and the Muslim world in general doesn't strike me as the sort of place which embraces all religions. I hope I'm wrong, though.

 

[Little Raven]

It's difficult to believe because it seems democratically elected Islamic parties and freedom of religion may not be compatible in the long term.

Yeah, but remember, this just a survey of what people would like, not a policy statement. People like the concept of freedom of religion in the abstract...it's only when religions other than their own start gaining ground that people turn away from it. I don't doubt that religious freedom would dwindle under Islamist rule, but I'm not surprised that people, even self-described Islamists, like the idea.

 

[sonorakitch]

This is exaclty how and why we can look at the majority of Muslims as being supportive of militant Islam. Only when we can do this will the western world wake up to the reality that Islam is the primary preventive force in seeking a peaceful world.

~Chris

 

[Atlas14]

The ME Muslims will believe anything anti-U.S., why am I not surprised with these percentages...

 

[Babbler]

I wonder how Western Muslims would responded to the same questions. I know 2 Muslims with similar beliefs.

 

[Irish Caesar]

The ME Muslims will believe anything anti-U.S., why am I not surprised with these percentages...

I wonder how Western Muslims would responded to the same questions. I know 2 Muslims with similar beliefs.

But what is so strange about these assertions? That the US is waging war against oil-producing nations to have more control over these strategic resources, that the US seeks to limit the power of any sort of pan-Islamic coalition, that attacks on civilians are bad but that attacks on military forces are legit, and that freedom and democracy would be better than dictatorship?

Although few believed aQ was behind the destruction of the World Trade Center, only 30% saw bin Laden as a positive figure, and many saw attacking civilians (as aQ does) to be against the principles of Islam.

Really, I don't see these as "anti-US," just "pro-Arab/Muslim."

If similar questions were asked to Westerners in the same line, don't you think the responses would be similar? Many would say that the Arab Muslim ruling elite wish to bring harm to the West and its way of life, they want the West to recognize Allah as the one god and Muhammed as his prophet. They would say that they do not support attacks on civilians, and that George Bush and Tony Blair don't stand for them, and that democracy and free religion are important to a society.

They're no different from us, but the people ruling our countries don't want either of us to know that.

 

[Hygro]

I went to a lecture for my Military Science class. Attending it were old republicans, all the cadets, and other ROTC types in the university.

The lecturer basically told us about how Islam is evil, and the audience not only ate it all up, but had already believed that. During a question-answer section I heard a lot of the more militant American right wing talking points (such as democrat elected equals terrorist attack, etc).

It's no wonder they think we want those goals when the more right wing among us DO want those goals.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

Victim syndromne

I've read about this before. Yes, the problem is when Arabs and others start convincing themselves as the 'victims', they start distorting the reality to further their victim status. A good portion of these type of people also believe Israel was somehow responsible for the 9/11 attacks. More often than none those type of theories reek with anti-semitism.

My opinion? Don't give the third-world idiots anything else to fight about. And if anyone is worried that these people 'will come over to America', then allow preemptive measures do their best.

 

[JollyRoger]

Victim syndromne

I've read about this before. Yes, the problem is when Arabs and others start convincing themselves as the 'victims', they start distorting the reality to further their victim status.

Yep - in the U.S., the self-proclaimed victims convince themselves that there is a War on Christmas every year.

 

[Atlas14]

Although few believed aQ was behind the destruction of the World Trade Center, only 30% saw bin Laden as a positive figure, and many saw attacking civilians (as aQ does) to be against the principles of Islam.

Really, I don't see these as "anti-US," just "pro-Arab/Muslim."

The two go hand-in-hand almost perfectly. Their refusal to accept that someone amongst their faith would possibly do something horrendous despite bin Laden fessing up, to me shows that they are strongly (yet blindedly) pro-Muslim, but also do not trust the U.S. enough to see the truth in a sea of overwhelming evidence that contradicts their persistant false opinions. Probably chiefly pro-Muslim/Arab, but also a case of anti-Americanism present.

 

[Amin001]

hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqis dead? with us installing and supporting dictators in the region, "Saddam in Iraq, the Shah in Iran, Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan"

yes i would consider them victims, i dont blame them at all for hating us, my lord i would be pissed too if a other county came in and overthrew my government or provided my enemy with chemical weapons to kill innocent civilians in my own country

you have to read the history books of the region to understand the attitudes over there

here is a good one that is official admitted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_ajax

here is a other example in the iran-iraq war

"With more than 100,000 Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical weapons during the eight-year war, Iran is one of countries of the world most severely afflicted by weapons of mass destruction."

"On 21 March 1986, the United Nations Security Council made a declaration stating that "members are profoundly concerned by the unanimous conclusion of the specialists that chemical weapons on many occasions have been used by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops and the members of the Council strongly condemn this continued use of chemical weapons in clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 which prohibits the use in war of chemical weapons." The United States was the only member who voted against the issuance of this statement."

"There is great resentment in Iran that the international community helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons arsenal and armed forces, and also that the world did nothing to punish Saddam's Baathist regime for its use of chemical weapons against Iran throughout the war — particularly since the US and other western powers later felt obliged to oppose the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and eventually invade Iraq itself to remove Saddam Hussein"

guess who gave them the chemical weapons?

and thats just scratching the surface

 

[plarq]

This poll is very interesting.

I see similar results inside People's Republic of China: they embrace anything western but somehow too stubborn to admit western supremacy. They like US-style democracy but strongly hate US aggression in some parts of the world.

In fact, many third-worlder are imperialists who want revenge against the order the west imposed to the world. The revenge went wrong and became self-contradiction: they embrace west and hate the west at the same time. Unlike western world, many people are isolationists, then imperialists, then liberals/social democrats/left-wingers/alter-globalization.

They want Western value and their own supremacy at the same time, how irony.

 

[REDY]

Although few believed aQ was behind the destruction of the World Trade Center, only 30% saw bin Laden as a positive figure, and many saw attacking civilians (as aQ does) to be against the principles of Islam.

30% is not "only". Its very bad number.

 

[bigfatron]

There is a popular believe that jews are behind 9/11, so? Doesn't make it true.

People are idiots, I think we've established that already.

No, people aren't idiots - people react to the information they are given, giving different weight to it when it supports or contradicts their personal beliefs.

Think about the depth of debate here on something as cast iron certain as evolution when it happens to contradict people's deeply held beliefs and desires. Ditto global warming.

People reject information that makes them uncomfortable and put additional weight on information that supports their personal 'world view'.

I would prefer people in general in all countries were more rational and critical in their approach, but unfortunately it will be along time before we are able, as a species, to surrender the crutch of irrational belief.

In that respect the respondents to this poll are no different from western nationalists - just their specific belief system is Islam rather than western nationalism and their news sources are Al Jazeera rather than Fox.
BFR

 

[Irish Caesar]

30% is not "only". Its very bad number.

Yes, but it's still lower than George Bush's approval rating.

Obviously the fact that anyone sees bin Laden as a force for good is a problem, but he's not as tremendously popular as is made out in the media.

 

[Verbose]

Here's the thing about almost all Muslim countris:

State controlled crappy media feeding people propaganda. So people tend to only half believe half or so of what they are told. Instead people fall back on the time-honoured, true-and-tested forms of information known a rumor and gossip.

It also means they tend not to believe anything much of what they are officially told by foreign media either. Things aren't what they seem is pretty much "what everyone knows" in Arab nations, which means all kinds of crack-pot theories will get more than a fair hearing.

And Al-Jazeera and satellite television have been a blessing for the Arab world in the way it has forced state controlled media everywhere to prick up their ears and at least try to do some real reporting, lest they totally lose their viewers, and the point of them.

More news and better news from more sources is what the Arab world badly needs.