What do Muslims think of the US?

According to the recent Pew Global Attitudes Survey (PDF here), the following proportions of Muslim respondents have a favourable view of the US:

43% in Kuwait, 33% in Lebanon, 22% in Egypt, 20% in Jordan, 15% in Morocco, 13% in Palestine, 9% in Turkey, 51% in Bangladesh, 27% in Indonesia, 15% in Pakistan, 9% in Malaysia, 78% in Mali, 69% in Senegal, 49% in Nigeria, 48% in Ethiopia, 41% in Tanzania.

What stands out to me here is that the majority of Bangladeshi Muslims hold a favourable view of the US: Bangladesh is the only non-African country surveyed where this is the case. I wonder why. Perhaps the anwer lies in the fact that a large number of Bangladeshis know their compatriots living in the US who send back a balanced view of the US to their friends and relatives in Bangladesh.

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.

Most Muslims against the use of suicide bombing

The results of a Pew Global Attitudes Survey carried out in April in 47 countries (available in a PDF file) show that the majority (often an overwhelming one) of Muslims in 15 different countries are against suicide bomb attacks on civilian targets.

According to the survey, the proportions of Muslims who believe that suicide bombing is sometimes or often justified are: 34% in Lebanon, 20% in Bangladesh, 9% in Pakistan, 23% in Jordan, 10% in Indonesia, 11% in Tanzania, 42% in Nigeria, 16% in Turkey, 39% in Mali, 26% in Malaysia, 21% in Kuwait, 18% in Ethiopia, 18% in Senegal, 11% in Morocco, and 8% in Egypt.

The only territory polled where a majority of Muslims supports the use of suicide bombing as a tactic was Palestine, where 70% of respondents think it can sometimes or often be justified.

Fears of more violence in North Africa

North Africans -- Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians -- are wondering whether the recent violence in Algeria and Morocco was linked. It seems that Al-Qaeda is gaining strength in the region: the formerly independent Algerian terrorist group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat has recently changed its name to Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, thus becoming a member of the international terrorist organisation.

There are also worrying signs of North African veterans of the Iraq War -- who fought on the side of the Sunni insurgents -- are joining terrorist organisations upon their return home.

Furthermore, growing terrorist activity in the region gives the area's already authoritarian governments an excuse to clamp down further (BBC).

This is just another way in which the Iraq War has made the world a more dangerous place to live in, rather than a safer one.