Is jihad becoming passe? According to this recent Pew poll, perhaps so.
More after the jump.
It shows that all over the Muslim world, support for suicide bombing has dropped a ton since 2002. Hot Air also notes, in the link, that there seems to be a pattern that the closer a Muslim lives to Israel, the more inclined they are to approve of suicide bombing. Of course, the so-called Palestinians lead the world in that particular savagery.
One chart that caught my attention comes on page 8. It’s a poll that asks whether folks thought the next generation would be better or worse off. Almost straight across the board, Western countries (The US, Canada, Western Europe) believed the nest generation would be worse off, but some fairly healthy margins. Exactly the opposite is true in Eastern Europe, Asia (except for “Westernized” Japan), the Middle East (except for “Westernized” Turkey), and Africa. I wonder if that’s due to our post-modern ways of thinking about the world – especially the world as it will exist beyond out own lives. I’m willing to say that I’m unduly pessimistic on this point, but it certainly seems to me that the countries that have embraced the self-centered, pointedly secular, and multicultural view of the world are the ones who believe their children will live in a worse world than today. I find that sad.
Anyhow, give the report a good skimming. It’s a hopeful report and there is some interesting stuff there – maybe stuff for a couple or three blog posts.
