Mental Mayhem reader Heiko alerted me to a survey whose findings disturbed me to no end. According to the survey by the Pew Research Center:
In Jordan, confidence in bin Laden, who took responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and many other attacks, rose to 60 percent from 55 percent.
Also according to the report, support for suicide bombings rose in Jordan to 57 percent from 43 percent in 2002.
I’m not sure how accurate this report is, but it is certainly disturbing!!! Is this really happening in Jordan? I hope and pray this is not the case. Can anyone shed any further light on this?
While i dont condone violence in any of its forms, I cannot help but understand the result of the poll in question. Allied forces have been killing Iraqi’s for 2 years! Dont buy into the package wrapped propaganda being spit out by the world media. Whether the killers are wearing suicide bomb belts on busses and trains, or carrying AK 47’s on tanks, makes no difference. They are both killers. However we cannot overlook the facts! and the facts is that over 100,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq. Its naive to think people are not going to strike back, as the suicide bombers did. What goes around, comes around. Thus the support shown in the polls for the suicide bombers.
What struck me was that Jordan was the only Muslim country surveyed where support for both bin Laden and suicide bombings had gone up (support for bin Laden was up a fraction in Pakistan, but support for suicide bombings was down). Not only that, a greater percentage support bin Laden or suicide bombings in Jordan than in any of the other countries surveyed.
This is particularly remarkable considering the large drops elsewhere, eg support for suicide bombings down to 13% in Morocco from 40%.
Also, I’ve been living in Britain for a long time, but I grew up in Germany next to the Dutch border, and the survey confirmed what I suspected. Bin Laden has managed to turn German and Dutch opinion negative against Islam itself, something he hasn’t (yet) managed in the US or UK.
Jack, I would not even call this religious radicalism, if these stats are true. I would call it social radicalism, because many arabs, not just religious ones, feel this way about the political and social situation between the U.S. and the Arab world, that is if these stats are true. If they are, then something needs to take place within the social structure of the arab world, in regards to politics. on top of that, there needs to be an exchange of ideas and true peace talks between the arab world and the U.S., instead of the U.S. being in charge. Basicaly, there needs to be a give and take within this relationship for there to ever be peace. if that does not happen, which i am sure will likely never happen, then peace will seem tonever truly exist in its purest form.
You constantly hear that it is the “extremist fringe” that support the bombings all over the world … not just in the Afhgan, Iraq or Palestine. When you see these kind of stats … if they are correct, then you have to conclude the “fringe” is in reality the “majority”. Religious radicalism has fast become the order of the day.
I was more dismayed by the Pew survey results that 70% of Jordanians feel it’s ok to attack Americans and American interests (my goodness, doesn’t everyone have a brother in the US?) . Or that only 10% fear an attack on Jordan? With all that have been thwarted? Is there that much confidence in the Muxabarrat? Compared to other Muslim countries, it made us look pretty backward.
lol these stats are predictable. of course people are going to agree with any actions that are considered “fighting back” that are considered “justice”, as wrong or right as you or anyone may think those actions are.
While I might not agree with Bin Laden simply on a religious level, we should all be able to admit that his and alqedas actions are in retaliations to the hundreds of thousands that have died at the hands of Israel, America and the UK.
The common Jordanian is observant, they turn on their tvs and see a land occupied to the east and a land occupied to the west, brothers slaughtered in the east and brothers slaughtered in the west. they see a world indifferent to suffering. they see a religion under attack; their religion. so when something like 911 comes along the feeling which arises is that of justice, no matter how small it is, no matter how little the number of victims are, no matter how wrong it may be. revenge…oldest emotion in the book…eye for an eye.
this is why to me, these stastics are nothing to raise an eyebrow over. every action requires a reaction…this is jordans’
Why do London bomings happen?
Take a look at these pictures…
http://www.albasrah.net/images/iraqi-pow/murder.htm
got a clue now?
and oh, of course, the pictures are inconclusive when the Victims are moslem ayrabs…
Sadly, things seem to be business as usually. The majority are unwilling to fight, afraid they are too alone to appose the violence and know their governments are not going to do anything about it. Some secretly fund group A to kill group B, and the reverse, not realizing that this will only make it worse. And with a few miniscule and pointless exceptions, most of the Arabs in the world, especially in the ME, won’t actively protest it, even if their own children are the ones that get blown up. This isn’t going to stop until the people themselves stop it. It took women, who got tired of going to their childrens funerals, to stop it in Ireland. And I think you can guess just how likely that would be in most Arab nations.
I know that the majority don’t want it, but that is meaningless so long as the minority are ‘allowed’ to do it anyway. People in the ME have to start standing up and, more importantly, realize that spilling other people’s blood only brings peace if there isn’t enough of the opposing side left to keep fighting **or** both sides stop trying to cut each others throughts. The former solution isn’t going to happen, unless both sides anihilate each other completely and someone outside of the ME moves into the then vacant land, so common sense would suggest trying the other way. Religios fanatics and those that get indoctrinated by them however lack even basic sense, never mind common sense.
Like Craig says. If you stand by and allow it to spread, making no attempt to see it, detect it or stop it, then it spreads like cancer. And as someone else once stated, there are no New Muslim, Protestant Muslim, etc. mosques ofrother ‘clear’ denominational seperations that even ‘allow’ anyone to differentiate the drastically different views. Until someone is willing to absolutely declare that such a seperation ‘must’ happen and they have sufficient support to avoid immediately being assassinated as an false Muslim and infidel…
I have no informaton of the social or political situation in Jordan, but from my perspective, it seems there are no campaigns against this kind of radical lifestyle? It doesn’t seem like social and or political leaders speak out against such violence when it happens, or do anything to prevent it creeping into society like a cancer. These radical views and violence are the scourge of the earth.
I pray that somewhere, somehow a Muslim leader steps up and recaptures the Islam faith, and spreads non-violent practices.
Sweetie, not just in jordan , its a pattern all over the arab world and most of the muslim countries too…. scary , yes it is very scary , but the thing is , no body seems to be doing anything to avoid it. Radicalisation of society seems to be the theme of the last decade , and we are reeping its fruits now ! Where were all these anti-extremist govts. when such movements were only few membered groups ? KSA for one supported them and so did all the other gulf countries financially ! Besides , the US foreign policy hasnt exactly helped the cause , if you know what I mean. Just yesterday I watched a very disturbing documentary film , about the balata refugee camp , seriously , I sort of got an idea of the situation and began to understand why people support Islamic Jihad and Hamas , for the first time in my life ! I kept thinking , if I (anti war , anti suicide bombings , anti civilian killings) was influenced , felt dispair and actually saw that these people are dead anyway , why wouldnt they feel the same , even worse….
It was shocking for me when I heard people talk about “greeting a non muslim ” ,”taking their medication (that contained some non halal constituents) ” eating with a firk and knife…. all this was so shocking to me ! Religion really is the opium of the masses and most of the world seem to be really HIGH ! Make any sense ?