Pew poll: Muslims increasingly opposed to extremism

The IHT discusses a new Pew Global Attitudes Project poll showing that increasing numbers of Muslims see Islamic extremism as wrong.

Of course, in the short term this won't lead to any diminution of attacks as the terrorists were always only a small percentage of Muslims, and they had no problem justifying even the most horrific acts.

Nevertheless, if the trend continues--and I see no reason it shouldn't, especially if democratic values make more headway in Muslim nations--this brand of terror will lose much of its cachet, and thus its sources of funding, as people no longer choose to be associated with it. This has consequences for the long term level of sophisticated terror attacks.

Interestingly, countries having experienced attacks (at least in the graphs I saw) are more likely to condemn extremism. Two with the highest disapproval ratings are Morocco and Indonesia--each underwent disastrous bombings. And just like with nuclear power, erstwhile supporters of terror subscribe to the NIMBY view: Kill the infidel somewhere else. Nice to see that even extremist supporting folks keep property values in mind.

Many Muslims see Islam as as their first identity--and presumably where their loyalties lie--with citizenship coming second. This is problematic, but should European countries improve intergration of Muslims, no easy task--especially in France, where Muslims feel very much excluded because of France's near total emphasis on secularism--then this, too, will be a declining problem. Of considerable importance is whether Imans will start preaching anti-terror, or at the very least, not preaching sympathy with the terrorist's methods and goals.

On the other hand, with increasing immigration to Europe, Muslims can be expected to achieve higher levels of political representation, thus allowing them to make their new countries more Islam friendly.

In the end, it will depend on how successful Europe is in Europeanizing Islam. Should it fail, Muslims will certainly Islamisize Europe to an unhealthy degree.

Analysis to the poll results from around the world is here.