Suicide Reversal?

As is the case for most surveys of public opinion in the Muslim world, the Pew survey is a mixed bag. It is encouraging that support for suicide bombings has declined in seven of the eight countries for which data is available for 2002 and 2007; more encouraging is the declining confidence in Osama bin Laden in all seven Muslim countries for which comparative data is available. Less encouraging is the support the survey found for Hezbollah and Hamas. Nor should we overlook the overwhelmingly unfavorable view of the U.S.

The unfavorable view of suicide bombings coupled with the favorable view of Hezbollah and Hamas indicates one problem with the survey: Suicide bombings are merely a tactic. Militants have many tactics beside suicide bombings, including IEDs, car bombs, mortars, and ambushes. The critical question is not whether respondents favor suicide bombings, but if they think violence in defense of Islam is justified.

There are a few areas where this survey can help in setting policy. First, although it will be a long and slow process, we should be cognizant of efforts in the Muslim world — such as those of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan — to produce religious consensus on concepts like jihad. The opposition to suicide bombings revealed by the survey can bolster such efforts. Second, the survey reveals continuing problems with U.S. public diplomacy. The fact that the U.S. is seen as a greater threat than al Qaeda in the Muslim world provides extremists with fertile recruiting ground.

— Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the author of My Year Inside Radical Islam.

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