Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 15, 2005; Page A13
Osama bin Laden's standing has dropped significantly in some pivotal Muslim countries, while support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence has "declined dramatically," according to a new survey released yesterday.
Predominantly Muslim populations in a sampling of six North African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries share to a "considerable degree" Western concerns about Islamic extremism, according to the poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization.
Pew Global Attitudes Project Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics (PDF, 50 pages, 215 KB)
Slideshow on Poll Data (PDF, 29 pages, 303 KB) Video Post's Wright on Terrorism Poll
The Washington Post's Robin Wright discusses a recent poll revealing a drop in Muslim support for terrorism.
The Washington Post's Robin Wright discusses a recent poll revealing a drop in Muslim support for terrorism.
"Most Muslim publics are expressing less support for terrorism than in the past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries, and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defense of Islam," the poll concluded.
The one exception is attitudes toward suicide bombings of U.S and Western targets in Iraq, a subject on which Muslims were divided. Roughly half of Muslims in Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco said such attacks are justifiable, while sizable majorities in Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia disagreed. Yet, support for suicide bombings in Iraq still declined by as much as 20 percent compared with a poll taken last year.
The results, which also reveal widespread support for democracy, show how profoundly opinions have changed in parts of the Muslim world since Pew took similar surveys in recent years. The poll attributed the difference in attitudes toward extremism to both the terrorist attacks in Muslim nations and the passage of time since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In May 2003, many Muslims "saw a worldwide threat to Islam and [bin Laden] represented opposition to the West and the United States," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center and project director. "Tempers have since cooled."
The poll results are a rare piece of good news for the Bush administration, which has faced difficulties seeing gains in its two top foreign policy goals -- combating terrorism and promoting democracy in the Islamic world.
"These are eye-catching results, but not surprising," said Augustus Richard Norton, a Middle East specialist at Boston University. "Muslims, like non-Muslims, are plugged into the world. . . . It is one thing to be caught up in the supposed glamour of attacking the superpower or global bully, but it is quite another to have to pay the consequences economically, politically -- not to mention personally. This is what has happened in places like Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey, where many people now see extremist Islam as a threat to their lives, not a fantasy game of kick Uncle Sam."
The survey, conducted from April through mid-June, before the London bombings, polled 17,000 people in the six Muslim-dominated countries and in 11 major Western and Asian nations, including the United States. They were asked about their attitudes toward Islam, Muslim nations and extremist violence. More than 6,200 interviews in Muslim countries were conducted in person, while interviews in the West and in Asia were done by telephone and in person.
The new poll also found that growing majorities or pluralities of Muslims now say that democracy can work in their countries and is not just a Western ideology. Support for democracy was in the 80 percent range in Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco. It was selected by 43 percent in Pakistan and 48 percent in Turkey -- the largest blocks of respondents in both countries because significant numbers were unsure.
"They are not just paying lip service. They are saying they specifically want a fair judiciary, freedom of expression and more than one party in elections. It wasn't just a vague concept," Kohut said. "U.S. and Western ideas about democracy have been globalized and are in the Muslim world."
Uma pesquisa realizada pela    ''Pew Global Attitudes Project'' disponibilizada quinta-feira (14) mostra uma queda no apoio a grupos terroristas pela população  da maioria dos países muçulmanos pesquisados. 

A ''Pew Global Attitudes Project'' é dirigida pela ex-Secretária de Estado norte-americana Madeleine Albright e ex-Senador Republicano  John Danforth. O projeto começou a pesquisar o comportamento dos muçulmanos a partir dos ataques de 11 de setembro contra os EUA.

A pesquisa foi realizada durante os meses de abril a junho, antes do atentado em Londres. Foram entrevistadas 17 mil pessoas de seis países de maioria muçulmana, 11 países ocidentais incluindo os EUA e países asiáticos. A margem de erro varia entre 2% e 4%.

Pela pesquisa, 2%  dos muçulmanos libaneses entrevistados disseram ter alguma ou muita confiança em Osama bin Laden. Pela pesquisa realizada em maio de 2003, 14% diziam ter alguma ou muita confiança em Osama Bin Laden. O apoio a bin Laden também sofreu uma grande queda na Turquia: em maio de 2003, 15% dos muçulmanos turcos disseram confiar em bin Laden, na pesquisa recente 7% declararam algum ter muita ou algum tipo de confiança nele. Em Marrocos, a confiança ao extremista caiu de 49% para 26%, na Indonésia de 58% para 35%. 

Na Jordânia e no Paquistão o apoio a Bin Laden teve um pequeno crescimento. Na Jordânia o número de muçulmanos que disseram ter alguma ou muita confiança em Bin Laden foi de 55% em maio de 2003 para 60% em junho de 2005, e no Paquistão variou de 45% em maio de 2003 para 51%.

A pesquisa também mostra  uma queda no apoio dos ataques de homens-bomba suicidas contra alvos norte-americanos ou iraquianos. No Marrocos 79% dos entrevistados disseram na pesquisa de agora que atentados desse tipo nunca devem ser justificados, contra 38% da pesquisa realizada em março de 2004. Na Indonésia o número de pessoas que consideram não haver justificativa para um ataque de homem-bomba subiu de 54% em 2002, para 66%; no Paquistão passou de 38% (2002) a 46%; no Líbano de 12% (2002) a 33%. A exceção foi a Jordânia, 26% eram contra qualquer tipo de ataque de homens-bomba em 2002, e 11% consideram não haver qualquer razão para isso na pesquisa de agora.

Entre outras informações, a pesquisa traz  também a visão que os muçulmanos, cristãos e judeus têm uns dos outros. Para a pergunta sobre qual religião é a mais violenta, a maioria dos entrevistados em países ocidentais respondeu que é o Islamismo. Os entrevistados de países muçulmanos responderam que consideram o Judaísmo a religião mais violenta. Para a maioria dos entrevistados, tanto nos países de maioria muçulmana, quanto nos países ocidentais, o Cristianismo é a religião menos violenta. 

A pesquisa completa pode ser baixada   aqui.