Internet Anthropologist Think Tank: Muslims become cynical about false prophet Bin Laden and terrorism in the name of Allah

Opinion polls in Iraq and Afghanistan showed that more than 90 per cent of those populations have unfavorable views of al Qaeda and of Osama himself. Pakistan is also among the Muslim countries where al Qaeda has greatly lost its popularity — from above 75 per cent five years ago to 34 per cent now. Pravda.Ru has interviewed several major experts in the field of terrorism to explain this information.

“It is easy to explain why Iraqis dislike al Qaeda. First, most Iraqis are Shia, which the al Qaeda movement regard as heretics. Second, al Qaeda-affiliated groups are killing civilians in Iraq.

It is also easy to explain why so many Afghans have similarly unfavorable views of Islamicist radicals. Most Afghans hate the Taliban, which brutalized the country from 1995-2001 and continues to wreak havoc there. Afghans associate bin Laden and al Qaeda with the Taliban.

Pakistan is a more interesting case. Until recently, Osama bin Ladin and al Qaeda had made some in-roads in attracting support from moderate Muslims, according to a number of opinion polls. The U.S. invasion of Iraq no doubt caused some of this shift in moderate opinion, but I suspect that what we're seeing now is these same moderates beginning to realize that the al Qaeda movement is a dead-end. They're looking for an alternative. The challenge for the United States, Russia, and other countries with a stake in global security is to help identify that alternative,” says Andrew J. Grotto, Senior National Security Analyst at the Center for American Progress.

“I think al Qaeda has lost considerable popularity because its indiscriminate violence has provoked a backlash among Muslims, who have been its principal victims. Al Qaeda has murdered more Muslims than non-Muslims, more Afghans than Americans. Also more Iraqis than Americans,” says James Phillips, Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.

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