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Low Muslim support for bin Laden's group: poll
Muslim majorities in an arc of five countries from Egypt to Pakistan have little good to say about al Qaeda one year after American commandos killed the Muslim terror group's leader, a poll shows.
Muslim majorities in an arc of five countries from Egypt to Pakistan have little good to say about al Qaeda one year after American commandos killed the Muslim terror group's leader, a poll shows.
Most of the views expressed by Muslims in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Pakistan were overwhelmingly negative in the poll conducted as part of the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, released on Monday.
The organization cautioned that findings in Pakistan, where US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, did not include responses from areas holding 18% of the population; these districts were too dangerous for pollsters to operate.
The poll found overwhelmingly unfavorable views of al Qaeda in Egypt at 71% compared to 21% who held favorable views; Jordan, 77% to 15%; Turkey, 73% to 6%; and Lebanon, 98% to 2%. The areas of Pakistan polled found 55% negative, and 13% positive.
Pew said support for bin Laden had been ebbing considerably before his death. In Jordan, for instance, 61% of respondents told pollsters in 2007 they had confidence that the terrorist leader would do the right thing. The next year, after al Qaeda suicide attacks against Amman, Jordan's capital, that number fell to 24%. By last year, it was lower still at 13%.
The margin of error on the latest polling varied according to the country but ranged from 4.2 percentage points to 5.2 percentage points. The polling was done in late March and early April.
