Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Muslim-majority Countries

In a new survey released on July 1st, the Pew Research Global Attitude Project found that fears about extremism are on the rise in countries with substantial Muslim populations, and that groups like Hizbullah, Hamas and al-Qaeda are viewed with increasing negativity by citizens of these countries.

The survey underscores the growing fear and anger felt by many in Muslim-majority countries when facing a range of militant threats, from that of Boko Haram in Nigeria to ISIS to the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan.

Even extremist groups that have won elections in certain countries, like Hamas, have seen the levels of their support drop precipitously.

While the percentages of people who are worried about extremism increased in almost all the countries surveyed, the Middle East saw a strong increase.

"In Lebanon, which shares a long border with conflict-ridden Syria, 92% of the public is worried about Islamic extremism, up 11 points from the already high figure of 81% in 2013," Pew found. "Lebanese Christians (95%), Shia Muslims (95%) and Sunni Muslims (86%) all share high levels of concern.

"Eight-in-ten in Tunisia express anxiety about extremism in their country, up from 71% in 2013 and 65% in 2012. Three-quarters in Egypt are also concerned, slightly increased from the 69% measured in 2013. In the Palestinian territories, 65% worry about extremism, with much greater concern in the Gaza Strip (79%) than in the West Bank (57%)."

In Pakistan, for instance, people have a negative view of the Taliban, while in Nigeria, Boko Harem, which made the news recently when it kidnapped over 300 girls in the north of the country, an overwhelming majority viewed it with great suspicion.

Only two countries saw a reduction in a fear about extremism – two democracies, Indonesia, a democracy which has the world's largest population of Muslims, and Senegal in West Africa. In Indonesia, the number of those worried about extremism fell to 39% from 48%.

In Senegal, the percentage drop was from 75% to 46%. And "91% of Senegalese approved of France's intervention against anti-government rebels in Mali, the highest support for the military action among the African and Middle Eastern nations surveyed."

It also seems that the al-Qaeda brand is suffering greatly, one of its late leader Osama bin Laden's greatest fears. Not a single country of the 14 surveyed had a favourable opinion of al-Qaeda. Even in the Palestinian territories, where 25% of those surveyed had a favourable view of the terrorist organization, that figure is down almost 10% from last year.

The news was not much better for other extremist groups, with only eight percent of Pakistanis viewing the Taliban favourably. And while Hizbullah was viewed favourably by Shia Muslims in Lebanon, where the organization is based, it is seen negatively everywhere else. Even Israeli Arabs don't like it, with 65% of them holding unfavourable views.

And Hamas is seen more negatively in the Gaza strip then it was on the West Bank.

"More than half in the Palestinian territories (53%) have an unfavourable view of Hamas, with only about a third (35%) expressing positive views," the report said. "Negative views are higher in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip (63%), up from 54% in 2013. In the Fatah-led West Bank, 47% have an unfavorable opinion of Hamas."

Meanwhile, support for suicide bombing remains high in a few countries, but overall support for the tactic has plummeted.

"Interestingly enough, the survey also manages to disconnect the idea of adherence to Islam to support for suicide bombing," ThinkProgress reported. "'For the most part, support for suicide bombing is not correlated with devoutness,' Pew wrote in its results. 'Generally, Muslims who say they pray five times per day are no more likely to support targeting civilians to protect Islam than those who pray less often.'"

The survey covered 14,000 people in 14 countries from April 10th to May 25th. The margin of error for the in-person surveys varied by countries from plus-or-minus 3.7 percentage points to 4.5 percentage points.