If these guys are America's allies; then imagine America's enemies
- From: arash7019@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 27 Apr 2007 17:36:20 -0700
Inter Press Service (IPS)
April 24, 2007
Survey Finds Suspicion of U.S. Pervasive in Islamic World
By Jim Lobe
Washington -- Six and a half years after U.S. President George W. Bush
launched his "global war on terror", suspicion of U.S. motives remains
pervasive throughout the Islamic world, according to a new and highly
detailed survey of four countries released here Tuesday. [1]
An average of more than 75% of respondents across the four countries
-- Egypt, Morocco and the world's two most populous Muslim nations,
Indonesia and Pakistan -- said they believed that dividing and
weakening the Islamic world and maintaining control over Middle East
oil were key goals of U.S. foreign policy, according to the survey by
the University of Maryland (UM) and WorldPublicOpinion (WPO). [2]
And an average of two out of three respondents named "expanding the
geographic borders of Israel" as a third major U.S. policy objective
in the region.
By contrast, less than one in four agreed that Washington wanted to
create "an independent and economically viable Palestinian state",
despite Bush's explicit endorsement of that goal since before the 2003
US-led invasion of Iraq.
Sixty-four percent of respondents in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Morocco
said another U.S. goal was to "spread Christianity in the region". The
question was not asked in Egypt.
"While U.S. leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism,
people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the U.S. as being at war
with Islam", said WorldPublicOpinion editor Steven Kull, who also
directs the UM Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).
"There's a feeling of being under siege".
http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/AuthorBiography.aspx?AuthorId=449
Suspicion of U.S. goals was particularly high in Egypt, by far the
largest recipient of U.S. aid in the Islamic world since it signed a
peace treaty with Israel in 1978, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in
Morocco, another long-time U.S. ally.
Respondents in Indonesia and Pakistan were generally less suspicious
of U.S. motives, although large percentages of Pakistanis -- 40% or
more -- declined to answer many of the more than 50 questions included
in the survey, in part because respondents in rural parts of the
country often said they did not know enough to voice an opinion.
The survey, which was based on personal interviews of 1000 or more
respondents in each of the four countries, also found widespread
sympathy for what they said they believe are key goals of al-Qaeda (al-
CIA-da) and other violent Islamist groups.
Nearly three out of four respondents said they agreed with al-Qaeda's
objectives -- if not the means -- to force Washington to remove its
bases and military forces from all Islamic countries and stop favoring
Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians; "to stand up to America
and affirm the dignity of the Islamic people"; and "to keep Western
values out of Islamic countries".
Respondents showed somewhat less enthusiasm for al-Qaeda's more
religiously oriented goals, such as enforcing strict Sharia law in
Muslim countries or establishing a single state, or Caliphate,
throughout the Islamic world, although they, too, commanded strong
majority support, particularly in Morocco.
At the same time, however, majorities in each country, ranging from
56% in Pakistan to 82% in Egypt, said they thought global economic
globalization and communications was positive for their country.
Similar support was found for democratic forms of governance.
The survey, which was carried out between mid-December and mid-
February, is the latest in a string of polls suggesting that
Washington's image in the Islamic world, particularly in Arab
countries, has fallen to all-time lows.
In a survey carried out late last year by the polling firm Zogby
International in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia and
released in February by UM professor Shibley Telhami, three out of
four respondents described their attitudes toward Washington as either
"somewhat" (21%) or "very" (57%) unfavorable. The same poll found that
Bush himself was by far the Arab world's most-disliked world leader,
exceeding even Israeli leaders who had topped four consecutive annual
surveys carried out by Zogby and Telhami since 2002.
Asked their opinions of the current U.S. government in the latest
poll, a majority of respondents -- ranging from 59% in Pakistan to 93%
in Egypt -- said their views were unfavorable. Substantially smaller
majorities -- just over 50% -- expressed unfavorable views of "the
American people" in Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia, while two out of
three Moroccan respondents said their views of the people of the
United States were favorable.
In addition to identifying what they thought were major U.S.
objectives in the Middle East, respondents were asked to choose among
three possible options for what was "the primary goal" of the U.S. war
on terrorism.
Strong majorities in Pakistan (68%), Morocco (72%) and Egypt (86%)
chose either "weakening and dividing the Islamic religion and its
people" or "achieving political and military domination to control
Middle East resources". An average of only 13% of respondents in the
same three countries said the primary U.S. goal was to "protect itself
from terrorist attacks".
The results in Indonesia were somewhat less negative. Fifty-three
percent of respondents chose one of the first two options, while 23%
selected the third. Telhami noted that such findings were typical of
recent surveys.
The United States was also perceived in all four countries as having
an extraordinary amount of control over events in the world. Nearly
nine out of 10 Egyptians said the U.S. exercises control over
"most" (32%) or "nearly all" (57%) "of what happens in the world
today". An average of nearly two out of three respondents in the other
three countries agreed with those assessments.
As for attitudes about al-Qaeda itself, an average of 15% of
respondents said they supported the group's attacks on U.S. targets;
while 23% said they oppose such attacks but share the group's
attitudes toward the United States. Another 26% said they oppose both
its attacks and its attitudes towards the U.S., while 37% (including
two-thirds of all Pakistanis) declined to answer. Support for attacks
on U.S. targets was highest in the two Arab states, Egypt (25%) and
Indonesia (15%).
But respondents made a clear distinction between what kinds of attacks
they considered permissible. While an average of about half of all
respondents (and much higher percentages in the two Arab states) said
they either "strongly" or "somewhat" approved of attacks against U.S.
soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere in the region, only a tiny fraction --
well under 10% -- said they approved of attacks against civilians,
either in the region or in the United States.
At the same time, the survey found more ambiguous responses to
questions about al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Small pluralities in
Egypt (40%), and Pakistan and Morocco (27%) said they had generally
"positive" impressions of him, as opposed to "mixed" or "negative"
views. In Indonesia, views were more evenly split.
The apparent inconsistency between those findings and strong
disapproval of attacks on civilians may be explained in part by
uncertainty over al-Qaeda's role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. Across the four
countries, an average of 42% of respondents said they didn't know (63%
in Pakistan) who was responsible for the attacks.
Only 2% of Pakistanis believed that al-Qaeda was responsible for the
attacks, compared to 34% who said they believed the U.S. government or
Israel was behind them.
Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the U.S. Institute of
Peace, suggested that that result may reflect confusion about the
group's leaders who "20 years ago were 'freedom fighters', and now
they're 'terrorists'. Folks just don't believe al-Qaeda did this".
Opinions were more evenly divided in the other three countries: in
Morocco, 35% named al-Qaeda, while 31% said either the U.S. or Israel;
in Egypt, the breakdown was 28% and 38%, respectively. In Indonesia,
26% of respondents blamed al-Qaeda, while 20% said they believed the
U.S. or Israel was responsible.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37468
Notes:
---------
[1] Muslim Public Opinion on U.S. Policy, Attacks on Civilians and al-
Qaeda (April 24, 2007)
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/apr07/START_Apr07_rpt.pdf
[PDF - 250KB]
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/apr07/START_Apr07_quaire.pdf
[PDF - 100KB]
[2] Muslims Believe U.S. Seeks to Undermine Islam (April 23, 2007)
Majorities Want U.S. Forces Out of Islamic Countries And Approve of
Attacks on U.S. Troops
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/346.php?nid=&id=&pnt=346&lb=hmpg1
Related:
------------
World Publics Reject U.S. Role as the World Leader (April 17, 2007)
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/345.php?nid=&id=&pnt=345&lb=hmpg2
Iranians Overwhelmingly Reject Bin Laden (January 30, 2007)
Both Iranians and Americans See Terrorism as a Threat to Their
Countries
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddleeastnafricara/313.php?nid=&id=&pnt=313&lb
World View of U.S. Role Goes From Bad to Worse (January 22, 2007)
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/306.php?nid=&id=&pnt=306&lb=btis
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