Pew Research: Support for bin Laden Had Declined but Remains Constant for al Qaeda

In the months leading up to Osama bin Laden’s death a survey of Muslim publics around the world found little support for the al Qaeda leader. [That being said,*over 20% of Muslims in several of the countries surveyed still had favorable views of al Qaeda itself. Let's take a closer look at what the survet results conveyed.] Words: 502

So*says*the Pew Research Center’s most recent*Global Attitudes Project (http://pewglobal.org.com)*survey* which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com, has reformatted*and edited [...] below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. (Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.)*The survey*goes on to say:

Confidence in Osama bin Laden Had Fallen Drastically – Everywhere

Among the six predominantly Muslim nations surveyed (March 21st to April 12th, 2011)*just prior to Osama bin Laden’s recent death he received his highest level of support (see below)*among Muslims in the Palestinian territories (34%).



Minorities of Muslims in Indonesia (26%), Egypt (22%) and Jordan (13%) expressed confidence in bin Laden, while he had almost no support among Turkish (3%) or Lebanese Muslims (1%).

Support for Osama bin Laden Had Fallen Dramatically – Everywhere

As the above table shows that, over time, support for bin Laden*had dropped sharply among Muslim publics. Since 2003, the percentage of Muslims voicing confidence in him had declined across the board:*

• Jordan: bin Laden support declined by 43% from 56% of Muslims in 2003 to just 13% in the most recent poll. Jordanian support for bin Laden fell dramatically (to 24% from 61% the year before) in 2006, following suicide attacks in Amman by al Qaeda.
• Palestinian territories: Support was down 38% from the 2003 high of 72% albeit still at a relatively high 34% compared to other regions.
• Indonesia: Down 33%
• Pakistan: Confidence in bin Laden fell from 52% in 2005 to just 18% in last year’s survey (2011 data is still not available).
• Lebanon: Support dropped off by 18% from a high of 195 in 2003 to a negligible 1% in the recent survey.*

*Favorability of al Qaeda Remains Constant Across the Muslim World



Nigerian Muslims offered*the highest*positive views of al Qaeda (49% in 2010)*followed by the Palestinian territories (28% positive/68% negative),*Indonesia (22%), Egypt (21%), Jordan (15% which was down from 34% the previous year) with Turkey showing a slight increase from a relatively marginal 4% in 2010 to*5%**in 2011.

As the survey results*above show, however, in spite of the Muslim public expressing* largely negative*views of *al Qaeda in the 2011 survey their views were very similar to their ratings in 2010 (except for that of Jordan).

[It will be interesting to see how the recent death of bin Laden will affect the popularity of al Qaeda in the next 12 months. Stay tuned for next years survey!]

*http://pewglobal.org/2011/05/02/osam...-recent-years/

Editor’s Note:

• The above article consists of reformatted edited excerpts from the original for the sake of brevity, clarity and to ensure a fast and easy read. The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered.
• Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given as per paragraph 2 above.
• Sign up to receive every article posted via Twitter, Facebook, RSS*Feed or our FREE Weekly Newsletter.

bin Laden