The Pew Research Center’s latest survey is quite interesting. There are some areas of concern but the overall picture is more positive than many would have expected:
Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.
Native-born African American Muslims are particularly dissatisfied:
More generally, native-born African American Muslims are the most disillusioned segment of the U.S. Muslim population. When compared with other Muslims in the U.S., they are more skeptical of the view that hard work pays off, and more of them believe that Muslim immigrants in the U.S. should try to remain distinct from society. They also are far less satisfied with the way things are going in the United States. Just 13% of African American Muslims express satisfaction with national conditions, compared with 29% of other native-born Muslims, and 45% of Muslim immigrants.
Follow the link to view the complete report. Notice how bad the situation in Europe looks in comparison? Yikes.
Bloggers React:
Markedmanner Blog
I find it funny that this article says ONLY 5 percent of American Muslims express a favorable view of al-Qaida. Well 5 percent of 2 million people is over 100000 people! Is that really a small problem?
On Religion
I’ve only read a summary of the study, and not the study itself (it’s just out this morning). But one strange and unsettling finding is that only 40 percent of Muslim Americans say that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks. I’ll have to look deeper into this point.
Right Wing News
Oh yes, Islam has its “crazies just like other faiths have them.” But, the difference is that with other religions, the “crazies” who are inspired to murder people because of their faith are one in a few million. With Islam, it’s one in four here in the US. That means if you’re talking to a group of twenty young Muslims in the United States, 5 of them probably think it’s OK to blow themselves up on a school bus full of young kids to protest Muslims killed in the crusades, Westerners being allowed to go to Saudi Arabia, the defeat of the Taliban or whatever other the latest kooky fad is with the radical Jihadi set.
Michelle Malkin
Headline: Nearly Three in Ten U.S. Muslims have favorable views/no opinion of al Qaeda. Yes, that’s hair-raising.
Jihad Watch
But what was their definition of “extremism?” The vagueness surrounding that question may explain much of the apparent contradiction between the numbers who support suicide bombings in some or many cases, the roughly 25 percent described below who “did not express an opinion” about al-Qaeda, and those who are “critical of Islamic extremism.”
Dean Esmay
I think that the report is mostly good news but there are some in the blogosphere who, presumably on a half empty/half full basis see it as bad news, noting that roughly 5% of American Muslims believe that terrorism is justified under some circumstances. While I find it appalling that anyone can think terrorism is justified under any circumstances, having read the report I don’t find much cause for concern—you can’t draw the conclusions that some people are drawing on the basis of this report. The sad fact is that in a large enough group you can find 5% who believe in any fool thing.
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May 24th, 2007 at 3:58 am
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