Pew Survey: Arabs Not Responsible For 9/11, Say Majority In Muslim Nations

A report released today by the Pew Research Center reveals that a majority of Muslims in several Middle Eastern countries believe that the Sept. 11 attacks were not carried out by Arabs. The report, titled "Muslim-Western Tensions Persist," sought to investigate public attitudes about the relationship between the two global communities.

For the portion of the survey related to the Sept. 11 attacks, responses were gathered from Muslims in Egypt, Turkey, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Indonesia and Pakistan. A majority of Muslim respondents in each of these countries said they did not believe the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Arabs, the highest rate being in Egypt where 75 percent of Muslims said they did not believe that Arabs were responsible, closely followed by 73 percent of Muslim respondents in Turkey.

No more than 28 percent of Muslim respondents in any of these countries said they accept that the attack was carried out by Arabs, something seen as an inarguable fact in the United States and other Western nations.

The broader results of the survey, part of the Pew Center's Global Attitudes project, show that both Muslim and Western public opinion believes that relations between the two groups are problematic. A majority of respondents in France, Germany, Spain and Britain say that Muslim-Western relations are bad, while 48 percent of Americans and 38 percent of Russians agree. Similar majorities of the predominantly Muslim nations listed above agreed that relations were poor.

The two populations shared widespread concern over the influence of Islamic extremism and the lack of prosperity in Muslim nations, however, they diverged in explaining the causes of these conditions. A majority (53 percent) of Muslims believed that U.S. and Western foreign policy was a factor in the lack of prosperity for Muslim nations, while only 14 percent of Westerners believed this to be so.

Another major distinction arising from the survey was the preeminence of national versus religious identity. In each of the Muslim countries surveyed, with the exception of Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, respondents said they identified as a Muslim first and with their nationality second. Meanwhile, overwhelming majorities of respondents in the Western countries said their nationality took precedence over their religious identity, except in the United States where an equal split of 46 percent each said that they identified first as an American or first as a Christian.

Comments

[psycho vato loco]

02:46 PM on 08/30/2011

"A majority (53 percent) of Muslims believed that U.S. and Western foreign policy was a factor in the lack of prosperity for Muslim nations." . . . . . what? . . . .it cant possibly be because their governments are so corrupt, and the citizens lack the testicles to remove those in power,right?
those are called revolutions.
something that needs to happen here

[Meltdown71]

09:56 PM on 08/03/2011

Next they will deny 9/11 ever happened...same with the Holocaust

[researcher]

01:53 AM on 07/31/2011

the so called terrorists accomplished what they set out to do.

9/11 caused america to overreact which they did. that event divided americans and sped up the self destruction.

while america cuts social programs at home it spends hundreds of billions on nation building for corp profits. if you dont use it you lose it.

6000 american lives have been lost hundreds of thousand of iraqis and afghans killed and still the end is not over.

it sped up the bankrupt of america which was already in progress.

there is more to the 9/11 story than has been told to americans.

during the vietnam war over 80% of americans did not even know who the viet cong were. most americans thought it was a simple north and south vietnam war not started as a south vietnam civil war.

most americans love their wars (ie quick wars) in spite of what they claim. super power status thing. bully thing. 720 military bases around the world is imperialism defined.

[guamote]

08:55 AM on 07/27/2011

The poll says Muslims believe Arabs not responsible for 911.......well, that's right, Arabs aren't. Muslims are though. Perhaps they are trying to deflect here from their own faith, but what they're saying simply boils down to symantics. While it's true that Indonesia is the largest Islamic nation, we know where the Islamic terrorists hailed from and trained and sorry to say, but it was in Muslim nations. So, okay, they aren't specifically Arabian, however, those responsible for 911 WERE Muslim. Whether the terrorist are Egyptian, Indonesian or Iranian, I get why they'd want to distance themselves from such acts. However, if they are implying that those responsible for 911 were anything but Muslim is simply not true.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

03:19 AM on 07/27/2011

I'm not surprised by the survey results. People always like to shift the blame to someone else. The truth is that 18 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabian. So was Osama bin Laden. Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest supporter and exporter of terrorism. When the planes all across America were grounded what planes still flew? The ones taking Saudi Arabians back to Arabia. What was the Bush Administration response to 9/11? A useless 10 year war in Afghanistan, after carefully holding back long enough for al Queda to get to safety in Pakistan.

What else did the Bush Administration do? Invade Iraq, Saudi Arabia's enemy. What did Bush himself do? Hold hands with a Saudi Prince and give him a big kiss on the cheek. Why? Because as oilman billionaires Bush and Cheney had more in common with the Saudis than they did with other Americans. America will never move against Saudi Arabia for two reasons. One, they have too much oil and, two, they have control of the Kaaba, the Holiest Shrine in Islam. Only a Muslim Army can take Saudi Arabia away from the Saudi Monarchy, one of the last absolute monarchies on earth. When that happens, world wide terrorism will lose most of its funding.

[Oblongato]

02:31 PM on 07/26/2011

Was it relevant what part of the world the attackers came from? Why did Pew ask if Arabs committed the attacks? Why did they not ask the question about the common ideology of the attackers? Ideology transcends national origin.

The question strikes me as illogical - perhaps Pew felt that the question about the ideology in question would have been considered too offensive for it to be asked.

[JerryLevy]

11:30 AM on 07/26/2011

Judging from what I can read, the majority on the Huffington Post also don't think arab/muslims were responsible for the 9/11 attacks even though we know exactly who did it, where they were from and what their motives were. None of that matters to the majority of the conspiracy theorists here.

[FaceTheTruth00]

10:30 AM on 07/26/2011

And we wonder why there are not large groups of muslims speaking out against radical islamic terrorists?

[ThoughtThrough]

11:00 AM on 07/26/2011

you would have to wonder if you didnt stop to take your head out of the sand to look

[FaceTheTruth00]

11:37 AM on 07/26/2011

Please feel free to read the article again, because you obviously missed the point where a majority of arabs and muslims don't believe that their brethern even engage in terrorism. That would be proof positive of who has their head in the sand; aside from you, I mean.

But, by all means, please go gather any articles where large groups of muslims protest against radical islam. I'm not talking about a handful here and there; who either live in western nations, or have traveled to and have been educated beyond their muslim countries.

Go ahead, I'll give you all day to find said articles. In fact, I'll give you the rest of the week.

[jo smith456]

08:40 AM on 07/26/2011

NO BIG DEAL...

Christians were generally responsible for the last two World Wars (though Japan is not a Christian country...)
US, a champion of human rights and democracy, has the dubious and shameful distinction of the ONLY country that has used nuclear weapon on a civilian population not just once but TWICE...

[OtayPanky]

05:05 PM on 07/31/2011

I'm calling SHENANIGANS on you.

I'm not a christian, but christians certainly were not "generally responsible" for the last two world wars - which would be WW1 and WW2. Those wars were driven by the Nazis and the Japanese imperialists. Neither Hitler nor Hirohito were Christian.

As for the Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons, that has nothing to do with the topic being discussed - which is the widespread Arab refusal to acknowledge that 911 was done by Arabs, and their preference for blaming the Jews.

If you can't speak the simple truth, maybe you shouldn't speak at all.

[bobbydontcare]

09:38 PM on 07/25/2011

Yep and the Germans didnt try to kill all the Jews either

[Athletes Foot]

10:24 AM on 07/25/2011

It is quite a regular phenomenon to revoke or refute membership to your group to those who have brought embarrassment upon you. When someone commits a wrong of such excess in the U.S., we will call them un-American or un-Christian and we are often seek someone else to blame just to avoid having any ties to this group.

I am not surprised that we see the same reaction elsewhere in the world.

[OtayPanky]

10:59 AM on 07/26/2011

Oh, I'm calling SHENANIGANS on you for your shameless sophistry.

This poll isn't about Muslims saying it was an un-Arabic thing to do, so we're revoking the membership of the 911 participants in the Arab community.

Let me quote: "No more than 28 percent of Muslim respondents in any of these countries said they accept that the attack was carried out by Arabs."

You are simply being an apologist for Arabs who are being blinded to the truth by their own identity attachments.

[Athletes Foot]

01:03 AM on 07/28/2011

And how many Christians, for example, would deny Timothy McVeigh was a Christian.

More importantly, how many Christians believe that all Muslims are radicals simply because their in-group/out-group lens prevents them from seeing the world in more than two shades.

I am not apologising for identity attachments and their power to blind, I am just saying that this phenomenon exists everywhere and deserves to be dealt with everywhere.

[wakeupyouall]

11:16 PM on 07/24/2011

Fundamentalism islamic or christian that type of belief system is the problem. It is a chicken or egg question?? Which came first the paraniod schizophrenia or the belief system. But it sure does attrack the crazies. Doesn't seem to be cultural.

[Andres64]

02:43 AM on 07/24/2011

And how many Americans/GOPTers/FauxViewers think Iraq/Saddam was responsible?

[Giverny]

11:15 AM on 07/26/2011

It is frightening that there are so many people who do not question any media. You cannot walk through life relying on Fair and Balanced to be fair and balanced anymore than the only news network that brings you up to date news by the minute.. Sometimes the news coverage on US issues is more fair and balanced coming from the Canadian stations or BBC. Actually, most of the time. It seems to be very easy for Faux News to bastardize the truth and have people believe it. It must be something in the communion wines or the 'shine.

[ayr]

08:59 PM on 07/23/2011

the article mixes Arab and Muslim in a strange way, so most muslim-arab don't feel that arabs are responsible for 9/11 - how about the rest of the world? Anywhere you travel, if people trust you they open up about their doubts regarding the official story about what happened on 9/11. you don't have to be a cook to think that there are irregularities, omissions and general glazing over details. Anyway before you send me your heated replies and insults read this article by Robert Fisk of the Independent, he puts much better than I can ever do.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-even-i-question-the-truth-about-911-462904.html

[ZenCrusader]

04:20 PM on 07/23/2011

denial & ignorance are like an epedemic in those cultures, to the ill of us all. Their level of hatred towards Jews and Israel is deep and dangerous. truly sad.