Originally Posted by The Detroit News

Most Muslims are moderate, but

Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News

American Muslims are generally moderate and well-assimilated, especially when compared to Muslims in Europe and the Middle East. But one finding in a national survey released Tuesday prompted alarm: 26 percent of young Muslims think suicide bombing in defense of Islam can be justified.

Believed to be the nation's first, the random-sample survey of American Muslims by the Pew Research Center documents that incomes, education levels and personal politics among American Muslims are generally in line with non-Muslim Americans.

But the violence supported by some, especially those aged 18-29, prompted an immediate reaction from Muslim leaders in Metro Detroit on Tuesday.

They rejected the notion that suicide bombings are ever justified, and urged each other to address the issue in mosques this week.

Many attribute the finding to higher tolerance for risky behavior among young people and say that youths are more likely to spend time on radical Internet sites that sympathize with suicide bombers.

"Our tradition leaves no place and no justification for suicide bombings," said Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi, the leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights.

"I think that if other Americans read this stuff they'll say, 'Wow, and they are right next door.' " Elahi said. "But I am 17 years in this country and I haven't faced any young individuals who say it is OK in Islam to have a suicide bomb and to support suicide bombings."

The findings have special significance in Metro Detroit, home to an estimated 125,000 to 200,000 Muslims, some of whom were surveyed for this study.

American Muslims' views

American Muslims, the survey showed, reject extremism by greater numbers than Muslims in the Middle East, South Asia or Europe, according to the Pew survey. Fewer than half of American Muslims think of themselves as Muslims first, and Americans second.

"Clearly, this public comes across as much more moderate than much of the Muslim public in most of the world," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. "They are decidedly American in outlook -- 72 percent say hard work can get you ahead in the society, and that is even a larger segment than the general public in the United States."

American Muslim views diverged from the mainstream, however, when questioned about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Forty percent said they believe Arabs were responsible. The remainder either didn't respond, weren't sure or said they were not responsible.

"I think it is a little like the O.J. Simpson case," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan. "Minority groups are defensive of their own and at times shocked that one of their own would commit heinous crimes."

The survey reveals that most American Muslims are recent arrivals, 54 percent having emigrated since 1980, and more than three-quarters say they are concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism around the world.

A significantly greater number of American Muslims, 61 percent, believe that Israeli and Palestinian rights can co-exist, than in the rest of the world. In many Muslim countries, that belief is shared by only 5 to 26 percent of the populations.

A majority of Muslim Americans, 53 percent, say it has become more difficult to be a Muslim in the United States since the terrorist attacks, and 54 percent believe the government "singles out" Muslims for increased surveillance and monitoring.

The Pew Research Center conducted more than 55,000 interviews to obtain a national sample of 1,050 Muslims living in the United States, including in Metro Detroit. It was not known how many residents of southeast Michigan were polled.

More are hopeful

Indeed, in some respect, American Muslims are more hopeful about the country than all Americans. Thirty-eight percent are satisfied with the "state of the U.S.," as opposed to 32 percent of the general public.

Elahi and some other observers said that the evidence of some support for suicide bombing to defend the faith may be based on the lack of specifics in the question, and the comparatively small size of the sample responding to it.

Sally Howell, a scholar at the University of Michigan who advised Pew on the survey said that 58 of the 1,050 people responding to the survey answered the question on suicide bombings for 18- to 29-year-olds.

"It is a relatively small sample in comparison to the estimated population of Muslims," said Nadia Bazzy, 21, of Canton. "The question did not leave room for specifics and I have trouble jumping to one conclusion or another."

The report also said African-American Muslims, the largest group of "native-born" Muslims in the survey, are generally the most frustrated. Thirty-six percent of African-American Muslims view al-Qaida "very unfavorably," compared to 58 percent of all American Muslims.

"The most disillusioned segment of the Muslim community being African-Americans is not a big surprise," Walid said. "African-Americans have been historically disenfranchised in America and have not enjoyed the degree of economic upward mobility as immigrant Muslims."

Originally Posted by jvick125

Interesting... Here's another report:


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