Posted on 06/27/2006 1:00:10 PM PDT by white trash redneck
What Muslims think
To find out, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press carried out a large-scale attitudinal survey this spring. Titled "The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other," it interviewed Muslims in two batches of countries: six of them with long-standing, majority-Muslim populations (Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey) and four of them in Western Europe with new, minority Muslim populations (France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain).
The survey, which also looks at Western views of Muslims, yielded some dismaying but not altogether surprising results. Its themes can be grouped under three rubrics.
A PROCLIVITY to conspiracy theories: In not one Muslim population polled does a majority believe that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The proportions range from a mere 15 percent in Pakistan holding Arabs responsible, to 48 percent among French Muslims.
Confirming recent negative trends in Turkey, the number of Turks who point the finger at Arabs has declined from 46 percent in 2002 to 16 percent today. In other words, in every one of these 10 Muslim communities, a majority views 9/11 as a hoax perpetrated by the American government, Israel, or some other agency.
Further, Muslims in certain countries (especially Egypt and Jordan) see Jews conspiratorially, as being responsible for bad relations between Muslims and Westerners.
Conspiracy theories also pertain to larger topics. Asked, "What is most responsible for Muslim nations' lack of prosperity?" between 14 percent (in Pakistan) and 43 percent (in Jordan) blame the policies of the US and other Western states, as opposed to indigenous problems, such as a lack of democracy or education, or the presence of corruption or radical Islam.
This conspiracism points to a widespread unwillingness in the umma to deal with realities, preferring the safer bromides of plots, schemes, and intrigues. It also reveals major problems adjusting to modernity.
SUPPORT FOR terrorism: All the Muslim populations polled display a solid majority of support for Osama bin Laden. Asked whether they have confidence in him, Muslims replied positively, ranging between 8 percent (in Turkey) to 72 percent (in Nigeria). Likewise, suicide bombing is popular. Muslims who call it justified range from 13 percent (in Germany) to 69 percent (in Nigeria). These appalling numbers suggest that terrorism by Muslims has deep roots and will remain a danger for years to come.
BRITISH AND Nigerian Muslims the most alienated: The United Kingdom stands out as a paradoxical country. Non-Muslims there have strikingly more favorable views of Islam and Muslims than elsewhere in the West; for example, only 32 percent of the British sample view Muslims as violent, significantly less their counterparts in France (41 percent), Germany (52 percent) or Spain (60 percent).
In the Muhammad cartoon dispute, Britons showed more sympathy for the Muslim outlook than did other Europeans. More broadly, Britons blame Muslims less for the poor state of Western-Muslim relations.
But British Muslims return the favor with the most malign anti-Western attitudes found in Europe. Many more of them regard Westerners as violent, greedy, immoral, and arrogant than do their counterparts in France, Germany, and Spain. In addition, whether asked about their attitudes toward Jews, responsibility for 9/11, or the place of women in Western societies, their views are notably more extreme.
The situation in Britain reflects the "Londonistan" phenomenon, whereby Britons preemptively cringe and Muslims respond to this weakness with aggression.
Nigerian Muslims have generally the most belligerent views on such issues as the state of Western-Muslim relations, the supposed immorality and arrogance of Westerners, and support for bin Laden and suicide terrorism. This extremism results, no doubt, from the violent state of Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria.
Ironically, most Muslim alienation is found in those countries where Muslims are either the most or the least accommodated, suggesting that a middle path is best - where Muslims do not win special privileges, as in the UK, nor are they in an advanced state of hostility, as in Nigeria.
Overall, the Pew survey sends an undeniable message of crisis from one end to the other of the Muslim world.
i agree with everything 100%, save the penultimate point. if it were truly more just for them to die, God would have found another servant to carry out His wishes.
Nah, the penultimate point is the one that starts "that said."
The one before idle speculation.
Ignorance feeds on itself. It is much easier to blame external forces one can't do anything about than to admit personal and cultural incompetence and stupidity.
Islam guarantees that that can never change.
thanks for pointing that out. :)
I hate to bring up the obvious, but are you aware that they have been pouring into our country by the tens of thousands yearly, and running out of oil is not likely to change that?
Can you imagine these killers pouring here, pissed off and oilless?
Can you picture our PC bureaucrats deporting them all?
Where have we heard that before...?
Asked, "What is most responsible for Muslim nations' lack of prosperity?" between 14 percent (in Pakistan) and 43 percent (in Jordan) blame the policies of the US and other Western states, as opposed to indigenous problems, such as a lack of democracy or education, or the presence of corruption or radical Islam.
I can see the men folk expressing that opinion after a hard day of sipping tea in the cafe.
Right now I could use a Hamm. Or a Schlitz. Or an Old Style.
Forgot to add the "seriously, folks". Sorry.
Islam has proven itself in our own lifetimes an evil, despicable scourge upon this our earth. Mitigation or understanding is no longer necessary.
A moderate Muslim is one who hasn't yet plotted to kill an `infidel'. Moderate Muslims are the ones passing out candy whenever a bus full of innocents is blown up.
It is now that we who worship the true G-d must fight back, harder than ever.
"I will be so happy when we find alternative energy and let the mooslums go back to eating sand. I know this is still far away, but it will happen one day. Then they go all go back to the 14 century and no one will care."
Nah, then they will blame the West for bankrupting them with no warning. The real danger is blaming others rather then holding their leaders accountable, but of course their is no mechanism for holding them accountable in the end...
"It's no coincidence that their lineage is referred to in Genesis 16:12 as that of a "wild man" where the Hebrew word for wild (pere')actually means "a wild ass". It describes their behavior, actions, and mental state precisely."
Describing Ishmael I assume?
The real question is not so much where are we now, but where is all of this going? Does anyone think things are going to get better and we're all going to live in peaceful harmony? Or, is this leading to something else altogether?
bump fer later
Sorry, I am.
But it's good to have admirers. ;)
In specific, yes, but also an accurate prediction applicable to his extended progeny in view of their violent history towards Israel, amongst themselves, and the world in general.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
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You are so correct and they almost sound like parts of the Dem Party blogospehere!
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