30 July 2007

Bin Laden's popularity low among Muslims

According to the recent Pew Global Attitudes survey (results available in a PDF), few Muslims have confidence in Osama bin Laden.

Asked whether they had "confidence in Osama bin Laden to do the right thing regarding world affairs," the following proportions of Muslim respondents said they had a lot of confidence or some confidence in him: 20% in Jordan, 20% in Morocco, 18% in Egypt, 13% in Kuwait, 5% in Turkey, 1% in Lebanon, 38% in Pakistan, 41% in Indonesia, 39% in Bangladesh, 32% in Malaysia, 30% in Mali, 20% in Senegal, 37% in Ethiopia, and 11% in Tanzania.

Only in two countries or territories did the majority of Muslim respondents express a lot or some confidence in bin Laden: Palestine, with 57%, and Nigeria, with 52%.

It is not surprising that Palestinians have a somewhat different view of the world from other Muslims at the moment, but what's with bin Laden's relatively high popularity among Nigerian Muslims? Perhaps President Umaru Yar'Adua should investigate the roots of the disaffection that Nigerian Muslims must be feeling.

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