[Vision2020] Moderate Muslims Speak Out

[Pat Kraut]

What a stupid poll! I do not know anyone who approves of any blowing up of
civilians. I do not believe any poll by any group that would say that
Americans are accepting of the deaths  that include children. Why on earth
would someone take such a poll except to embarass us and use the info for
their own ends. How could you possible believe that they got any correct
info from Indonesia or any other country? However, it does not surprise me
that this would appeal to you.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nickgier at adelphia.net>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:15 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Moderate Muslims Speak Out


Surprise, Surprise!  It does not take special head gear to believe that
terrorist attacks are justified.  Let's get beyond the stereotypes and
embrace each other as brothers and sisters in a world community.

The myth of Muslim support for terror

The common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than
Christians or Jews.

By Kenneth Ballen, Christian Science Monitor, 2-23-07

WASHINGTON

Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go
hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more
approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim
country except for Nigeria.

The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland's
prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46
percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally
aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these
attacks are "often or sometimes justified."

Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world's
most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and
Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74
percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are "never
justified"; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81
percent.

Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?

Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to
draw that conclusion about Muslims. Public opinion surveys in the United
States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with
violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit
violence in the name of Islam around the world, that's an understandable
polling result.

But these stereotypes, affirmed by simplistic media coverage and many
radicals themselves, are not supported by the facts – and they are
detrimental to the war on terror. When the West wrongly attributes radical
views to all of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, it perpetuates a myth that
has the very real effect of marginalizing critical allies in the war on
terror.

Indeed, the far-too-frequent stereotyping of Muslims serves only to
reinforce the radical appeal of the small minority of Muslims who peddle
hatred of the West and others as authentic religious practice.

Terror Free Tomorrow's 20-plus surveys of Muslim countries in the past two
years reveal another surprise: Even among the minority who indicated support
for terrorist attacks and Osama bin Laden, most overwhelmingly approved of
specific American actions in their own countries. For example, 71 percent of
bin Laden supporters in Indonesia and 79 percent in Pakistan said they
thought more favorably of the United States as a result of American
humanitarian assistance in their countries – not exactly the profile of
hard-core terrorist sympathizers. For most people, their professed support
of terrorism/bin Laden can be more accurately characterized as a kind of
"protest vote" against current US foreign policies, not as a deeply held
religious conviction or even an inherently anti- American or anti-Western
view.

In truth, the common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more
than Christians or Jews. Whether recruits to violent causes join gangs in
Los Angeles or terrorist cells in Lahore, the enemy is the violence they
exalt.

Our surveys show that not only do Muslims reject terrorism as much if not
more than Americans, but even those who are sympathetic to radical ideology
can be won over by positive American actions that promote goodwill and offer
real hope.

America's goal, in partnership with Muslim public opinion, should be to
defeat terrorists by isolating them from their own societies. The most
effective policies to achieve that goal are the ones that build on our
common humanity. And we can start by recognizing that Muslims throughout the
world want peace as much as Americans do.

• Kenneth Ballen is founder and president of Terror Free Tomorrow, a
nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to finding effective policies
that win popular support away from global terrorists.



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