Muslim Support for Osama Bin Laden Is Falling, Researchers Say

By Ed Johnson

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Popular support for Osama bin Laden and for suicide bomb attacks against civilians is falling across most of the Muslim world, according to a U.S. survey.

Since 2003, Muslim confidence in the al-Qaeda leader to ``do the right thing in world affairs'' has dropped sharply, the Pew Research Center said in its annual ``Global Attitudes'' report.

The percentage of Muslims saying that suicide bombings are justified in the defense of Islam has dropped by at least half over the past five years in Lebanon, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia, the Washington-based group said yesterday.

The results, part of a wider survey of 47 countries and territories, suggest a ``decreasing acceptance of extremism'' among Muslims, almost six years after al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, the Pew group said.

Results are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews conducted in April and May with between 500 and 3,000 people surveyed in each country. The margin of error ranged from plus or minus 2 percentage points to 4 percentage points.

The overall image of the U.S. in predominantly Muslim countries remains ``abysmal,'' according to the report.

``Solid majorities'' in every largely Muslim country surveyed said they were worried the U.S. could become a military threat, including 76 percent of respondents in Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, the research group said.

Suicide Bombings

Support for suicide bombings and ``similar extremist tactics'' has fallen since 2002 in seven of the eight Muslim countries where data was available, according to the report.

In Lebanon, where government troops are battling al-Qaeda- linked militants in the worst internal fighting since the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990, the proportion of Muslims who said suicide attacks are often or sometimes justified has fallen from 74 percent to 34 percent since 2002.

In Pakistan, where at least 130 soldiers and civilians were killed in attacks by militants since July 11, 9 percent of respondents said such violence was justified, down from 33 percent five years ago.

Support for extremist tactics is ``widespread'' among Palestinians, the Pew group said. Forty-one percent said suicide attacks are often justified, while 29 percent said they could sometimes be justified. Only 6 percent said suicide attacks are never justified, the smallest proportion in the survey, compared with 77 percent in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim nation with a population of 234 million.

Muslim confidence in bin Laden has dropped from 56 percent to 20 percent in Jordan between 2003 and 2007. In Lebanon, it fell 19 points to 1 percent and from 72 percent to 57 percent in the Palestinian territories.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: July 24, 2007 20:54 EDT

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