Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Steven Kull, a political psychologist, is director of both the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland and WorldPublicOpinion.org, an international project studying public opinion around the world. He also conducts international polling for BBC World Service. He is coauthor (with I. M. Destler) of Misreading the Public: The Myth of a New Isolationism (Brookings).

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FEELING BETRAYED

BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS

Contents

Preface.............................................................................................viiIntroduction: America, Radical Islamist Groups, and the Muslim People...............................11 The Scope of Muslim Anger and Support for Violent Anti-American Groups............................82 The Narrative of Oppression and Betrayal and the Inner Clash of Civilizations.....................243 The United States as Coercively Dominating the Muslim World.......................................424 The United States as Hostile to Islam.............................................................725 U.S. Support for Israel...........................................................................896 The United States as Undermining Democracy........................................................1027 Views of Al Qaeda and Other Radical Islamists.....................................................1148 What Do Muslims Want?.............................................................................1469 What the United States Can Do.....................................................................194Notes...............................................................................................239Index...............................................................................................247

Chapter One

The premise of this book is that the problem of terrorism does not simply lie in the small number of people who join terrorist organizations. Rather, the existence of terrorist organizations is a symptom of tension in the larger society that finds a particularly virulent expression in certain individuals. Hostility toward the United States in the broader society plays a critical role in sustaining terrorist groups, even if most disapprove of those groups' tactics. The essential "problem," then, is one of America's relationship with Muslim societies as a whole, or an integrated system.

Clark McCauley has depicted the relationship between anti-American terrorists and their society as being like a pyramid. At the apex are the terrorists. Below them is a layer of "justifiers" who actively express support. Below them are the sympathizers who provide more passive support. At the bottom are those expressing negative views toward the United States more generally, providing the broad base from which the other groups emerge.

Adapting this model (see figure 1-1), this chapter begins by exploring the broad base of those expressing negative views of the United States and its foreign policy—majorities in most cases, with some quite substantial. Next up the pyramid are those who express passive support or sympathy for al Qaeda and other anti-American groups—in some cases modest majorities, especially when those who say they have "mixed feelings" are included. At a higher level are those who actively express support for anti-American groups either verbally or by approving if a child or family member were to join such a group or possibly by contributing money. This group constitutes a small but not insignificant minority.

On a parallel track up the pyramid there are those who express approval of attacks on U.S. troops, again a number that is a majority in some, but not all, nations. At a higher level of the pyramid is a considerably smaller but not insignificant minority that approves of attacks on American civilians.

Views of the United States through 2008

Before 9/11 there were very limited data available on attitudes toward the United States in the Muslim world. The U.S. Information Agency conducted some limited polling in the 1990s that showed substantially negative views toward the United States. In 1994, 61 percent of Turks said they had an "unfavorable" view of the United States, though this moderated later in the decade. In 1997 majorities with "unfavorable" views of the United States were found in Jordan (61 percent), the Palestinian Territories (71 percent), and Lebanon (54 percent); and in 1999 only 23 percent of Pakistanis expressed "favorable" views. In Indonesia and Morocco, however, three in four expressed "favorable" views of the United States.

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 there were a number of surveys that found largely negative views in some newly polled nations and worsening views among some of those previously polled. Negative views were particularly pronounced in countries in or around the Middle East. Gallup found that 64 percent of Saudis and 63 percent of Iranians had "unfavorable" views of the United States and that negative views were persisting in Pakistan (68 percent) and Jordan (62 percent). In the summer of 2002 Pew found 59 percent with "unfavorable" views of the United States in Egypt. In addition, views had worsened in Lebanon (59 percent, up 5 points) and in Jordan (75 percent, up 14 points). Views in Turkey, after having gradually improved during the 1990s, had turned decidedly "unfavorable" (55 percent).

Countries further away from the Middle East had milder views in the 2002 Pew poll. The biggest difference was in Uzbekistan, where 85 percent of respondents had a "favorable" view of the United States. Two majority-Muslim African nations polled also had "favorable" views—Mali (75 percent) and Senegal (61 percent). South Asians also showed less negative views of the United States than majority-Muslim countries in and around the Middle East, with a majority of Indonesians (61 percent) having a "favorable" view and Bangladeshis having divided views. In Pakistan, however, 69 percent had "unfavorable" views.

At that time, these predominantly negative views of the United States in the Muslim world in and around the Middle East were in sharp contrast to views of the United States elsewhere in the world. The 2002 Pew study found "favorable" views of the United States in thirty of the thirty-one non-majority-Muslim countries polled. On average, just 23 percent of respondents in those countries had an "unfavorable" view.

In the 2002 study Pew also asked respondents whether they favored or opposed "the U.S.-led efforts to fight terrorism." These efforts received majority approval in thirty-three of the thirty-four nations that were not majority-Muslim (Argentina was the exception). By contrast, these efforts were opposed by majorities in eight of the ten majority-Muslim nations, including those that in the same poll said they had a generally "favorable" view of the United States—Indonesia (64 percent) and Senegal (64 percent).

After the United States launched the Iraq war in March 2003, views of the United States grew more unfavorable in most corners of the world. In Pew's 2003 survey, among the ten non-majority-Muslim countries polled in 2002 as well as 2003, "unfavorable" views jumped substantially in all cases, on average 16 points from 33 to 49 percent.

Yet views grew particularly negative in the Muslim world. Even Indonesians, who had been quite positive toward the United States, grew sharply negative, with 83 percent expressing "unfavorable" views. "Unfavorable" views ballooned in Jordan (99 percent), Turkey (84 percent), Pakistan (81 percent), and Lebanon (71 percent). On average, 77 percent expressed "unfavorable" views of the United States among the eight majority-Muslim nations.

Over the next few years Pew continued to find...