Posted on 09/13/2007 6:58:55 AM PDT by BlueSky194
Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is more popular in Pakistan than President Pervez Musharraf, according to a poll released on Wednesday.
Nearly three-quarters of Pakistanis also oppose unilateral US military action against Islamic insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas, said the poll for Terror Free Tomorrow, a US-based organisation.
The survey "may help explain why Osama bin Laden remains at large in Pakistan and why both Al-Qaida and the Taliban have regrouped there," the group said in a statement.
It said it polled 1,044 people across Pakistan between August 18 and August 29.
Military ruler Musharraf, facing the biggest political crisis of his eight years in power and increasing pressure from Washington to tackle extremism, is the biggest in from the poll.
It said his approval rating was 38 per cent behind 46 per cent for bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks who is believed to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Bin Laden's ratings jumped to 70 per cent in the Islamist-ruled North West Frontier Province.
Musharraf's main rivals, the former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, enjoy favourable opinions of 63 per cent and 57 per cent respectively.
The survey was carried out several days before Musharraf deported Sharif, the man he ousted in a bloodless coup in 1999, within hours of his return from exile on Monday.
Pakistani chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, whom Musharraf tried to sack earlier this year, had a 69 per cent favourable rating, the survey said.
In comparison US President George W Bush was seen as favourable by just nine per cent of Pakistanis.
Meanwhile only 13 per cent of people said they would support US military strikes without Islamabad's cooperation -- a threat issued by several US officials in recent months.
But a majority back the Pakistani military, without US support, pursuing Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters inside Pakistan, the poll showed.
Terror Free Tomorrow is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation whose advisory board includes Republican US presidential candidate Senator John McCain, according to the group's website.
.....waiting to hear about all of the “moderate” muslims out there......
Great. They’ll vote to give Al Queda nukes.
Paging “Rage Boy”.
Al Capone was more popular than Herbert Hoover in America once...but it didn’t end well. ;)
Well that is not very surprising.... Some on the left in this country support Bin Laden above Bush.... Maybe the NYT should run that poll and see what they get... Hell why not sponsor a cut rate full advertisement from Al-Qaeda to America....
“Surrender”
Well, so much for playing footsie with Pakistan....NOW can we fight this war the way it needs to be fought?
As with Israel for the last 30 years, when a headchopper commits a suicide bombing, killing women and children in the marketplace, the world considers it “winning”.
The bombers are routinely written/talked about in context of their supposed “victimhood”, their complaints about occupation and oppression, ect.
Reward Pakistan for choosing a mass murderer as their country’s mascot.
Invade and kill the bastards.
Musharraf lives in a palace and bin Laden lives in a cave.
bin Laden is more popular among US Democrats than Bush, too.
“The survey “may help explain why Osama bin Laden remains at large in Pakistan”
No Shiite, Sherlock!
Where in the US is bin ladin more liked than Bush?
Easy...VERMONT...
How ‘bout the ones fighting for us in Afghanistan and Iraq?
This tends to make me think that there is little hope that countries like Pakistan will ever become modern pluralistic nations. India is practically there. What’s the difference:
ISLAM
Maybe Barack Obama was on to something ... :^)
Love your tag line!
Apparently, the Pakistanis haven’t gotten the memo from Victor Davis Hanson that Iraq is a shining, inspiring model of democracy for the Islamic world to follow. Then again, they want to exercise their democratic right to vote for an Islamo-fascist.
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