It appears that Osama bin Laden and suicide bombing are losing their popularity in much of the Muslim world, according to a world-wide survey done by Pew Research.
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.
That's still a lot of people supporting suicide bombing, though.
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.
Wow.
I'd like that survey to be administered to the general population of Western countries. I wonder how the numbers would compare. In this age of moral relativism, there could be significant pockets of people who think it's okay to commit suicide bombings to kill innocent civilians.
H/T: NoisyRoom.net
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