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Turning against suicide bombing?

Tuesday, 20th November 2007

Gideon Rachman has some interesting thoughts on the attitude to suicide bombing in the Muslim world:

[T]here is interesting evidence that America is doing a lot better on the hearts-and-minds front than is generally acknowledged. This first occurred to me a couple of weeks ago, when I was writing a column on Pakistan, and turned to the Pew polls of global opinion. Normally, if you are looking to prove American unpopularity around the world, Pew is a reliable source of bad news. And indeed, the approval ratings for America in places like Turkey and Pakistan - not to mention the Arab world - are as low as you might expect.
But there was another number in the Pew polls that struck me. The sharp decline in the support for suicide bombing among Pakistanis. The obvious explanation is that it is easy enough to express support for suicide bombers when it is Israelis or American troops who are the targets. But when suicide terrorism becomes a daily curse in your own country, the whole idea loses some of its attraction.
What I initially missed is that this decline in the support for Osama bin Laden - and for terrorism in general - is now fairly general across the Muslim world. This fact was pointed out to me this morning by David Pollock, a former American diplomat (now a think-tanker), who was once in charge of studying public opinion in the Islamic world for the US government. Pollock thinks that now that many Muslim countries have experienced suicide terrorism at home - think of Egypt, Morocco and Jordan - they are turning against the whole idea.
The most dramatic and imporant example of this trend has come in Iraq. The "Anbar awakening" may sound like a made-for-the-media soundbite. But the decision of Sunni tribes to turn against al-Qaeda is looking increasingly like a turning point of sorts in Iraq.
The moral of the story is that however badly the Americans blundered in Iraq, they could never be remotely as brutal, murderous or plain stupid as al-Qaeda. Gradually, large parts of the Muslim world may be realising that.

The key point he makes is that "when suicide terrorism becomes a daily curse in your own country, the whole idea loses some of its attraction". When it's Jews in Israel who are being murdered, it's an heroic struggle. When it's Muslims close to home, it's murder. The chain of reasoning may be sick, but if the result is that parts of the Muslim world are rejecting suicide bombing then that is progress, of sorts.

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Joshua

November 20th, 2007 11:07am

"When it's Jews in Israel who are being murdered, it's an heroic struggle. When it's Muslims close to home, it's murder." -- I really do think that when you quote Ken Livingstone directly, you should give proper credit.

Lee Jakeman

November 20th, 2007 8:11pm

Didn't you know, Stephen? People who attack OTHERS are freedom fighters. People who attack US are terrorists.

Ross

November 21st, 2007 3:15am

Today's story about the suicide bomber who attacked Benazir Nhutto's entourage last month will turn even more people against the Islamists: "The bombing on Benazir Bhutto’s procession in Karachi which killed over 170 people, was carried out by a person who used a one-year-old child strapped with fatal bombs, sources close to the PPP leader said. The bomber repeatedly tried to carry the child to the back of Benazir’s truck and hand over the infant to either Benazir Bhutto or any other PPP leader on the truck but something always prevented him from reaching close by. " http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?194705