http://www.usatoday.com/graphics/news/gra/muslimpoll/frame.htm
Many in Islamic world doubt Arabs behind 9/11
By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
A sweeping poll of attitudes in the Islamic world shows that most Muslims don’t believe Arabs carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and disapprove of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. The Gallup Organization poll, released Tuesday, is the most comprehensive survey of Muslim countries taken since Sept. 11. It confirms anecdotal evidence of a huge gulf between the West and Muslim nations that existed before the attacks and remains deep.
Although most Muslims condemn the terrorist attacks that sparked the U.S. war in Afghanistan, the poll shows a majority believe the campaign is morally unjustified and express a breathtaking depth of anti-U.S. sentiment.
Respondents overwhelmingly describe the United States as “ruthless, aggressive, conceited, arrogant, easily provoked, biased,” says Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport. “The people of Islamic countries have significant grievances with the West in general and with the United States in particular.”
Gallup conducted in-person interviews during December and January of 9,924 residents in nine Muslim countries: Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Key findings:
Although U.S. officials say all 19 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Arab men, only 18% of those polled in six Islamic countries say they believe Arabs carried out the attacks; 61% say Arabs were not responsible; and 21% say they don’t know.
Just 9% say they think U.S. military action in Afghanistan is morally justified. The least supportive: people in Morocco, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Two-thirds say the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were morally unjustifiable, but significant minorities disagree. In Kuwait, which U.S. troops liberated from Iraq in 1991, 36% say the attacks were justifiable, the highest percentage of any country polled.
A slight majority, 53%, view the United States unfavorably. Residents in Pakistan — a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism — Iran and Saudi Arabia are the most negative.
Muslims dislike President Bush; 58% view him unfavorably.
Only 12% say the West respects Arab or Islamic values. Just 7% say Western nations are fair in their perceptions of Muslim countries.
The key finding is “the strong feeling of resentment that emanates that the United States doesn’t care about them,” says Shibley Telhami, a Middle East expert at the University of Maryland.
The poll results are not statistically adjusted to reflect the populations of the countries surveyed. Margins of sampling error range from 2 percentage points in Pakistan to 4 points in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait.
The poll had about 120 questions, but not all were asked in every country because of censorship. For instance, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco did not allow the question about Arab responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002/02/27/usat-poll.htm