Muslims Believe US Seeks to Weaken Islam

More than six years after US President Bush launched his "global war on terror," the Islamic world remains suspicious of the United States' motives. That's according to a survey by the University of Maryland and WorldPublicOpinion.org. Ana Lehmann reports

To find out what people in Muslim countries think of the United States' foreign policy, and how they perceive Al-Qaida's response, interviewers conducted more than 4,000 face-to-face interviews in Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia and Morocco between December and February.

The results of the poll were surprising. It shows that more than 70 percent of Egyptians, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Moroccans believe the United States is trying to weaken the Islamic world.

About three out of four respondents in some of the world's most populous Muslim nations say they believe US foreign policy is aimed at dividing the Islamic world and maintaining control over oil in the Middle East.

Disapproval of US foreign policy in the Arab world

And an average of two out of three respondents name "expanding the geographic borders of Israel" as a third major US policy objective in the region.

The editor of the report, Steven Kull from WorldPublicOpinion.org, says only 12 per cent of respondents think the United States' so-called "war on terror" is justified.

"Americans primarily think of the war on terror as aimed at addressing the threats to America, to stop the attacks on Americans, but in the Muslim world, a large majority of Muslims perceive the United States as seeking to undermine Islam, to weaken and divide Islam," Kull says. "Many even think the United States has the goal of spreading Christianity in the region."

The survey also found widespread sympathy for what they said they believe are key goals of Al-Qaida and other violent Islamist groups.

While 30 percent of respondents approve of attacks on the US military in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf, 60 percent say suicide bombings were never justified and 67 percent believe Islam was opposed to attacks against civilians.

Mixed feelings about Al-Qaida

Steven Kull explains that when it comes to the question of Al-Qaida, many feel conflict: "On one hand they approve a lot of the goals of Al-Qaida – the goal of standing up to America, the goal of driving out US military forces. But on the other they feel uncomfortable with the methods, so they feel this tension and don't really know how to answer whether they feel positive or negative."

But Angus Muftah from the Indonesian-based "Siyasa Research Institute" says the mixed feelings may have been caused by the questions themselves, not the politics. "There's a lack of clarity," Angus Muftah says. "We don't think people should be asked questions about Al-Qaida and other Islamist groups at the same time – it's confusing."

Critics point out that if the questions had been asked in a different way, in a different order, or to a sample group that had been selected by another means, the results of the study would have varied greatly.

Steven Kull at WorldPublicOpinion.org says in future he plans to focus on people who support Al-Qaida and its strategy of attacking civilian targets. By doing so, he hopes to publish a study addressing the perceived causes of conflict – and perhaps it will have some impact on the foreign policy of the United States.

Ana Lehmann

Translated from the German by Sam Edmonds

Qantara.de

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Muslim Public Opinion report on US Policy on WorldPublicOpinion.org (PDF file)