Enquete: Libanese moslims keren zich af van zelfmoordterrorisme

 

Ondanks de scherpe daling is Libanon, samen met Nigeria, met 32% het land met het hoogste percentage moslims dat zelfmoordterrorisme steunt. De Nigeriaanse moslims hebben ook het meeste sympathie voor Bin Laden, maar de Libanese juist het minste. Misschien omdat Bin Laden soenitisch moslim is en Hezbollah -waar de steun voor het terrorisme vooral zit- shi'itisch?

 

De vrijwel wereldwijde afname van steun voor het internationale terrorisme is uiteraard goed nieuws, maar maakt nieuwsgierig naar de redenen. Voor Libanon laten die zich wel raden: in 2002 steunde 74% van de moslims daar zelfmoordaanslagen. Daarbij moet niet gedacht worden aan de aanval op de Twin Towers (ik meen dat Hezbollah die zelfs openlijk veroordeelde), maar aan de Palestijnen, die toen middenin hun bloedige Tweede Intifadah zaten. De Libanese moslims betuigden toen massaal hun solidariteit met de Palestijnse strijd.

 

Wouter

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Lebanese Muslims turning backs on suicide bombings
Poll also shows decline in support for bin Laden

 

By Nicholas Kimbrell
Daily Star staff
Saturday, September 20, 2008
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=96166

 

 

BEIRUT: The number of Lebanese Muslims who believe suicide bombings against civilians in defense of Islam are justified has fallen 42 percent since 2002, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Despite the dramatic decline (from 74 percent in 2002 to 32 percent in 2008), support for the practice remains higher in Lebanon than in all other countries polled in the survey, except Nigeria which stood in a statistical tie with Lebanon.

 

Of the Lebanese Muslims polled, Shiite respondents were more than twice as likely as Sunnis to consider suicide bombing "often" or "sometimes" justified (46 percent to 21 percent, respectively).

 

The study surveyed respondents in Lebanon, Nigeria, Jordan, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey.

 

Egypt was the only country in which support for suicide attacks underwent a significant positive change, increasing five percent. The national average, however, remained at a relatively low 13 percent.

 

A corresponding trend was noted in popular Muslim support for Al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden. According to the Pew survey, only 2 percent of Lebanese Muslims hold a positive view of bin Laden, down from 20 percent in 2003. This was the lowest favorability rating for the terrorist leader in all countries surveyed.

 

Support for bin Laden saw a similar decrease in Turkey - from 15 percent to 3 percent between 2003 and 2008. Jordan saw the largest decrease in popularity for the Qaeda chief, where positive views fell from 61 percent in 2005 to 19 percent today.

 

Nevertheless, Pakistani and Indonesian Muslims still showed solid support for bin Laden, with more than a third of all respondents in those countries expressing positive views.

 

Fifty-eight percent of Nigerian Muslims continue to support the fugitive.

 

The study also showed that 78 percent of Lebanese are "very" or "somewhat concerned" about the rise of fundamentalism within Lebanon. This overwhelming level of concern led all other countries polled.

 

The Pew survey's questions on fundamentalism extended to fears about the struggle between "fundamentalists" and "modernizers." Fifty-eight percent of the Lebanese polled believed the forces are in active opposition in Lebanon - the exact same percentage as in 2007.

 

But, again, the Sunni-Shiite divide was large. Eighty percent of Sunnis surveyed expressed concern over the struggle between modernization and fundamentalism, with 65 percent of that group identifying with the modernizers, six percent with the fundamentalists and 8 percent refusing to name with whom their sympathies lay. Only 37 percent of Shiite respondents cited the struggle, with 30 percent siding with the modernizers, 4 percent with the fundamentalists, and 3 percent refusing to say with whom their sympathies lay.

 

Questions regarding general religiosity in Lebanon found that Muslims were more likely than Christians to cite religion as an important part of their lives. Ninety-eight percent of the Sunnis, 82 percent of Shiites and 67 percent of Christians held their faith as central.

 

The study went on to note that Lebanese support for Hizbullah was divided almost entirely on confessional lines.

 

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