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Fears over rise of extremism in Muslim nations

Majority Muslims against terror outfits like al-Qaeda

Staff Correspondent
A strong majority of people in Bangladesh are concerned about Islamic extremism, but they have negative opinions of extremist groups like al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Pakistani Taliban, according to a Pew Research Centre survey.
Such fear is on the rise in countries with large Muslim populations in the
Middle East and South Asia, the survey says.
It says 69 percent of people in Bangladesh, 66 percent in Pakistan and 63 percent in Malaysia expressed their concerns about extremism.
And the fear has increased in the past one year in most Middle Eastern countries, according to the survey conducted among 14,244 respondents in 14 countries from April 10 to May 25
this year.
Asked whether suicide bombing or other forms of violence against civilian population can be justified to defend Islam, some respondents said that this form of violence is often or sometimes justified, but such support has generally diminished in the last decade.
Still, Muslims in a few countries, including Bangladesh, said it can be justified, according to the Washington-based research centre.
The highest 47 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed in Bangladesh support the view, followed by 46 percent in the Palestinian territories.
Contacted, Prof Imtiaz Ahmed of international relations at Dhaka University said such a high percentage of Bangladeshis supporting suicide bombing was unbelievable.
"Islam does not allow suicide and killing," he told The Daily Star last night, and went on to question the pattern of the questions asked in the survey.
He said the people of Bangladesh were more tolerant than those in many other countries. However, a lack of general and Islamic education might be a reason for such a response.
Citing the survey, Prof Imtiaz also said 83 percent people in Pakistan said they never supported suicide bombing, whereas suicide bombing was a commonplace in the country.
This shows that public perceptions in a survey and ground realities
may vary greatly.
The survey, whose results were released on Tuesday, was done to see how people view extremist groups such as al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and the Taliban.
Of them, al-Qaeda is losing support in all the 14 countries — Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Senegal, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Tunisia and Israel.
In Bangladesh, 66 percent respondents have negative opinions of al-Qaeda. However, 23 percent have a favourable opinion of the group.
In Bangladesh's case, the margin of error is nearly 4 percent.
Roughly, 40 percent in Pakistan and 32 percent in Malaysia also see the group unfavorably, but many in these countries offered no opinion.
An overwhelming majority in Nigeria have an unfavorable opinion of Boko Haram, the terrorist group that has been wreaking havoc in the northern regions of the country, including a high profile kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls during the early stages of the fieldwork for this
survey.
Overall, 82 percent of Nigerians have an unfavourable view of Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden". However, 10 percent of Nigerians have a favourable view of the group.
The Taliban, which has a base of operations on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, is seen unfavourably by 59 percent in Pakistan. Only eight percent have a favourable view of this extremist group, with a third of Pakistanis not offering an opinion.
Hezbollah, the militant organisation headquartered in Lebanon, is seen unfavourably in all the Middle Eastern countries surveyed. Opinions of the extremist group, which is labelled as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union, are negative in Asia and Africa as well.
Hamas is also viewed negatively, even in Palestinian territories, as more than half of Palestinians have an unfavourable view of the group, with about a third (35 percent) expressing positive views.