Muslim support for terrorism surprisingly low

While American views on Islam are warming, the nation is still somewhat suspicious of Muslims. A recent Cornell University poll found that 44% of us favor restricting the civil rights of American Muslims. But is that suspicion justified? Are Muslims more likely to favor terrorist actions?

Terror Free Tomorrow and the University of Maryland conducted polls aimed at answering precisely that question. The polls of populous, majority-Muslim countries produced surprising levels of opposition to terrorism. 74% of Indonesians felt that terrorist attacks were "never justified." In Pakistan, the number was 86%; in Bangladesh, 81%. When Americans were asked about "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians," only 46% said these attacks were "never justified."

The surprising conclusion is that not only are Muslims no more likely to support terrorism than Americans in general, they're actually less likely by a wide margin.

So why are American views of Muslims so skewed? It's impossible to know for sure, but I can make some educated guesses. Part of it is that the small, violent fringe of Islam is very violent indeed. Like in any group, it's the fringe that gets the most attention from the press. The press also tends to fixate on the religion of Muslim perpetrators in a way they don't with other groups. No one speculated that Timothy McVeigh's Roman Catholic upbringing might have been a factor in the Oklahoma City bombing, but when a Muslim commits a crime that question is always the first one asked. Finally, many Americans have no personal experience with Muslims, and fear of the unknown always figures big in our psyche. Whatever the reasons, this fear appears to be largely unjustified.