Ponder This

Taken from an article written by ALAN FRAM, AP presented on aol.com on 5/23/07:

Some U.S. Muslims Say Suicide Attacks OK

WASHINGTON (May 23) - One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances.

The survey by the Pew Research Center reveals a community that in many ways blends comfortably into society. Its largely mainstream members express nearly as much happiness with their lives and communities as the general public does, show a broad willingness to adopt American customs, and have income and education levels similar to others in the U.S.

Even so, the survey revealed noteworthy pockets of discontent.

While nearly 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam can not be justified, 13 percent say they can be, at least rarely.

That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely (This adds up to 26% on the suicde bomber side of the equation).

"It is a hair-raising number," said Radwan Masmoudi, president of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, which promotes the compatibility of Islam with democracy.

He said most supporters of the attacks likely assumed the context was a fight against occupation - a term Muslims often use to describe the conflict with Israel (Unless they live in Iraq where it is used against amreican soildiers).

U.S. Muslims have growing Internet and television access to extreme ideologies, he said, adding: "People, especially younger people, are susceptible to these ideas."

Federal officials have warned the U.S. must guard against homegrown terrorism , as the British suffered with the London transit bombings of 2005.

Even so, U.S. Muslims are far less accepting of suicide attacks than Muslims in many other nations. In Pew surveys last year, support in some Muslim countries exceeded 50 percent, while it was considered justifiable by about one in four Muslims in Britain and Spain, and one in three in France (All of these countries have suffered home grown terrorism).

"We have crazies (Most Judeo-Christian crazies do not want to die themselves) just like other faiths have them," said Eide Alawan, who directs interfaith outreach at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich., one of the nation's largest mosques. He said killing innocent people contradicts Islam.

Andrew Kohut, Pew director, said in an interview that support for the attacks represented "one of the few trouble spots" in the survey (Do you think).

The poll briefly describes the rationales for and against "suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets" and then asks, "Do you personally feel that this kind of violence is often justified to defend Islam, sometimes justified, rarely justified, or never justified?"

Those of all ages backing at least some suicide attacks were about evenly divided between men and women, with support stronger from those who were U.S.-born and less educated, and those who attend mosques at least weekly.

Only 5 percent of U.S. Muslims expressed favorable views of the terrorist group al-Qaida, though about a fourth did not express an opinion (Not saying something is also an answer).

Most said they are concerned about a rise in Islamic extremism in the U.S. and around the world.

Only 40 percent said they believe Arab men carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (There is also a group who do not believe man landed on the moon).

By six to one, they say the U.S. was wrong to invade Iraq , while a third say the same about Afghanistan - far deeper than the opposition expressed by the general U.S. public (In my opinion, this would seem to be support for Muslim extremists).

Just over half said it has been harder being a U.S. Muslim since the 9/11 attacks. Nearly a third of those who flew in the past year say they underwent extra screening because they are Muslim(Since 25% of their peers think suicde bombs are ok the extra screening may have saved their life).

Forty-seven percent said they consider themselves Muslim first, rather than American. Forty-two percent of Christians and 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants identified themselves primarily by their religion in earlier surveys.

The survey estimates there are roughly 2.35 million Muslim Americans (Thats about 587500 who believe in suicide bombings for either themselves or others). Among adults, two-thirds are from abroad while a fifth are U.S.-born blacks.

By law, the Census Bureau does not ask about people's religions.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,050 Muslim adults from January through April, including in Arabic, Urdu and Farsi. Subjects were chosen at random, from a separate list of households including some with Muslim-sounding names, and from Muslim households that had answered previous surveys.

The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.