What do you think of these numbers?

In a poll conducted five months ago, and broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 TV, nearly 25% of British Muslims said the July 7, 2005, terror bombings in London, which killed 52 innocent commuters, were justified. Another 30% said they would prefer to live under strict Islamic Sharia law rather than England's democratic system.

Now, one in four justifying terror may not be a majority, but it certainly isn't a "small fringe" either.

In other countries, the figures are no less unsettling. A survey published in December found that 44% of Nigerian Muslims believe suicide bombing attacks are "often" or "sometimes" acceptable. Only 28% said they were never justified.
According to the annual Pew Global Attitudes Survey, released in July 2006, "roughly one-in-seven Muslims in France, Spain and Great Britain feel that suicide bombings against civilian targets can at least sometimes be justified to defend Islam." The report also found that less than half of Jordan's Muslims believe terror attacks are never justified. In Egypt, only 45% of Muslims say terror is never justified.

Now you may argue that these views are not representative of Islam – but they are not the views of a tiny minority, either. Rather, such views are clearly those of a large minority of the Muslims in the world, and must therefore be grappled with as a part of a larger reality – one in which appeals to the more “high minded” views of Islam are likely to be ineffective given the more radical views of the jihadi pigs and their supporters.

Posted by: Greg at 02:15 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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