On the bright side, 75% of young American Muslims oppose blowing up infidels like us in the name of Islam.

One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances, though most Muslim Americans overwhelmingly reject the tactic and are critical of Islamic extremism and al-Qaida, a poll says.

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While nearly 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam can not be justified, 13 percent say they can be, at least rarely.
That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely.

Of course, some have tried to justify this result by saying it really only applies to blowing up Jews over the Palestinian issue – but I don’t find that particularly comforting. Nor do I find this attempted dismissal of the poll results to be particularly convincing.

"We have crazies just like other faiths have them," said Eide Alawan, who directs interfaith outreach at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich., one of the nation's largest mosques. He said killing innocent people contradicts Islam.

Somehow I doubt that the number of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu “crazies” approaches 25% -- or that you would find many who would support murder in the mane of their faith. That is why Alawan’s attempt to downplay the poll results is so disingenuous – he knows that the numbers don’t even compare.

On the bright side, our Muslims are less likely to support the random murder of infidels than those in other countries.

U.S. Muslims are far less accepting of suicide attacks than Muslims in many other nations. In surveys Pew conducted last year, support in some Muslim countries exceeded 50 percent, while it was considered justifiable by about one in four Muslims in Britain and Spain, and one in three in France.

I would be relieved by the statistic that only 5% of American Muslims are supportive of al-Qaeda – were it not for the little qualifier that we get in the article.

Only 5 percent of U.S. Muslims expressed favorable views of the terrorist group al-Qaida, though about a fourth did not express an opinion.

Got that – one out of every four American Muslism won’t say what they think of al-Qaeda. Am I the only one who finds that result frightening? Am I the only one who thinks this might be indicative of a fight column among us?

Nor will I let this little tidbit pass.

Only 40 percent said they believe Arab men carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

I’m too astounded for words – thee is really no disputing this FACT, but some 60% of Muslims are sufficiently in contact with reality to concede the truth, despite the fact that Osama himself has claimed responsibility for 9/11!

Frankly, these results can only be described as disturbing – and certainly justify heightened scrutiny of the Muslim community in this country.

Posted by: Greg at 01:22 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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