A disturbing consistency of views
Much more significant than the way Pew Center spun its poll, Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream, is the disturbing consistency of views internationally among young Muslims. 26% of young Muslim Americans believe that suicide bombing of civilians can be justified, and only 40% think that Arabs were responsible for 9-11, despite Osama bin Laden and the Magnificent 19 taking credit for the atrocity. Here are the international results for comparison:
An average of 24% of young Muslims in the UK, Germany, France and the UK believe that “suicide bombing” of “civilian targets” can be justified; 26% of young American Muslims believe that suicide bombing of civilian targets can be justified. An average of 33% of young Muslims in the UK, Germany, France and the UK believe that Arabs were responsible for 9-11; 40% of young Muslim Americans believe that Arabs were responsible for 9-11. These numbers are disturbingly large and pretty close among young Muslims in the West. While the numbers are twice as bad in Islamic countries, they are terrible in the West.
It would be much better to acknowledge how awful it is that a quarter of young American Muslims support suicide bombing against civilians, and that 60% either don’t know or don’t believe who killed 3000 Americans on 9-11, than for Pew and the MSM to spin these terrible numbers.
Indeed, we are led to wonder if the spinning extends to Pew’s not releasing the male/female breakdown of the suicide bomber question results (they did so on other questions). It would be significant to know, for example if 0% of young Muslim women supported suicide bombing and 50% of young Muslim men supported suicide bombing in the West, or whatever combination of numbers produced the 24-26% results. The more weighted toward men, who form nearly 100% of suicide bombers, the more troubling the numbers might be. Imagine: the numbers could be even worse than reported. Alas, Pew does not let us know those details.
Finally, the consistency of results among countries that support and oppose the US and the Iraq War, as well as the consistency of results among countries with varying rates of unemployment and economic growth, suggest that these rather vapid excuses for a paranoid mindset and the support for killing civilians have become obsolete as well as shopworn. Perhaps we are approaching the time when we can begin to discuss honestly the theological and psychological underpinnings of this dangerous ideology.