Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria. The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland’s prestigious Programme on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 per cent of Americans think that “bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians” are “never justified,” while 24 per cent believe these attacks are “often or sometimes justified.”

Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world’s most-populous Muslim countries — Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow found that 74 per cent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are “never justified”; in Pakistan that figure was 86 per cent; in Bangladesh 81 per cent.

Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathisers? Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to draw that conclusion. Public opinion surveys in the United States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam around the world, that’s an understandable polling result. But these stereotypes are not supported by the facts and they are detrimental to the war on terror. When the West wrongly attributes radical views to all of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, it perpetuates a myth that has the very real effect of marginalising critical allies in the war on terror. Indeed, the far-too-frequent stereotyping of Muslims serves only to reinforce the radical appeal of the small minority of Muslims who peddle hatred of the West and others as authentic religious practice.

Terror Free Tomorrow’s 20-plus surveys of Muslim countries in the past two years reveal another surprise: Even among the minority who indicated support for terrorist attacks and Osama bin Laden, most overwhelmingly approved of specific American actions in their own countries. For example, 71 per cent of bin Laden supporters in Indonesia and 79 per cent in Pakistan said they thought more favourably of the United States as a result of American humanitarian assistance in their countries — not exactly the profile of hardcore terrorist sympathisers.

In truth, the common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews. The surveys show that even those who are sympathetic to radical ideology can be won over by positive actions that promote goodwill and offer real hope. America’s goal should thus be to defeat terrorists by isolating them from their own societies. The most effective policies to achieve that goal are the ones that build on common humanity. And we can start by recognising that Muslims throughout the world want peace as much as Americans do. — The Christian Science Monitor