Posted on 05/31/2002 7:02:12 PM PDT by Enemy Of The State
How US Muslims view the war on terrorism
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Seven months after the September 11 attacks triggered incidents of harassment against them, US Muslims report being unhappy with parts of President George W Bush's anti-terrorism plan, but say that they are well treated by their neighbors, a recent survey has found.
While only one-third of respondents said that they were convinced that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was responsible for the attacks, slightly more than half believed that the US military campaign in Afghanistan was justified, according to a poll of more than 500 randomly selected Muslims interviewed late last month. But nearly two-thirds who responded described the widespread questioning and detention of Muslims in the US after September 11 as "an unwarranted abuse of civil liberties".
And, 75 percent said that they "strongly agreed" that "the US has always sided with the Israelis against the Palestinians", while 60 percent rejected the notion that the Bush administration "is trying to bring about a fair peace" between the two sides.
According to the poll, released in Washington on Thursday by Hamilton College and Zogby International, nearly three out of every four Muslim Americans either know someone who has or have themselves been subjected to discrimination, harassment, or physical assault since September 11. "It is clear from this poll that reports in recent months of anti-Muslim discrimination, harassment or attacks have not been exaggerated," said Dennis Gilbert, a sociology teacher at Hamilton. The polls showed a "clear escalation" in such incidents after September 11, compared to the preceding period, he added.
The poll results mostly echo findings of a larger poll of Muslim opinion conducted by Zogby for Project Muslims in American Public Square (MAPS) at Georgetown University last December. It found that 51 percent of Muslims supported the campaign in Afghanistan, and 58 percent had personally suffered or knew someone who had suffered a backlash experience since the attacks.
Half of the Muslim respondents asked last month defended US military action in Afghanistan as justified although 43 percent disagreed with that assessment, a finding that is strikingly consistent with the December survey.
Despite their experiences after September 11, 70 percent of the respondents described their fellow non-Muslim citizens as either "friendly" or at least "neutral" toward Muslims. The same percentage reported that non-Muslims had "personally conveyed support" for them after the attacks.
Interestingly, opinions on US support for Israel differ only slightly from those found in a general public opinion poll take in early May by the University of Maryland. It found that two-thirds of Americans favored a strictly neutral approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but almost 60 percent said that the Bush administration took Israel's side.
Almost half of the respondents (47 percent) in the Hamilton/Zogby survey said they agreed that the United States should try to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a finding that should cheer anti-Saddam hawks in Bush's administration.
The number of Muslims living in the United States is a source of controversy, particularly between the Muslim and Jewish communities, which both vie for the status as the most popular religious group in the country after Christianity. Because of the division between church and state in the US, the census does not include religious data.
While most analysts agree there are about 6 million US Jews, estimates of the number of Muslims range from about 2 million on the low end to 7 million on the high end. Zahid Bukhari, director of the MAPS project, said he believed the best estimate was between 5 and 6 million.
Respondents of the Hamilton/Zogby poll were identified by Muslim-looking names in telephone directories - a method that likely undercounts African-American Muslims and converts - and were asked to confirm whether they were indeed Muslim. Of those identified in this way, 30 percent said they were native-born, one-third were born in an Arab country, 16 percent in Pakistan, and the rest somewhere else. Ninety percent of respondents said they were US citizens. When asked to identify themselves by race or ethnicity, 17 percent described themselves as white; 8 percent as African American; 2.6 percent as African; 29 percent as Arab, and 31 percent as Asian.
But those differences were not reflected in the poll results, suggesting a political coherence among US Muslims.
Of the sample, 63 percent were college graduates or had graduate degrees, making the group second only to Jews in educational achievement and far ahead of the rest of the US population where only 26 percent have completed college studies. US Muslims are also exceptionally young: only 38 percent are over the age of 45, compared to 52 percent of all US adults.
Politically, a strong plurality considered themselves independent, while 36 percent said they were Democrats, twice as many as those who called themselves Republicans, despite the fact that about half of US Muslims voted for Bush in the 2000 elections.
How many have given money to OBL, or how many have offered other type of support to OBL?
Since they don't dennounce the attacks their clerics must support them, so maybe it is time to return them to their brethen in the ME?
How does one randomly select Muslims? It's not like the phone book reads "Musharref, Pervez, Muslim.
And guess what Zogby's ethnic background is?
Not all but definitely those whose documentation papers are not in order.
And where congress is concerned about the FBI being given too much power, we are only loaning it to them for the time being. Congress would be wise to formally declare a state-of-war exists with al Qaida and these powers will be recinded at the conclusion of the war.
But, I know of NO Muslim groups or organizations willing to help root out terrorists in their communities!!!
The only thing clear is that Muslims are pathological liars.
The sixth pillar of islam.
At most one-third of American Muslims are willing to face reality.
Yes, ALL
I say deport the unloyal ones, and then nuke all of 'em hard.
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