It took death, violence and destruction....

Percentage of people considering Ben Laden's movement as a legitimate resistance group drops from 66.8% in 2004 to 20% in December 2005

It is tragic that it took the events of 9th November 2005 to make so many Jordanians realise the evil of Zaqarwi's ways...I also wonder what the results will be when the carry out the same survey in 2006, 2007 and onwards...

In the article below it is interesting to see how the perception of a violent attack increases as the targets get closer to home - London, Sharm...Amman.



From Thursday's Jordan Times
(Whole article copied below as links never last past the week)

By Alia Shukri Hamzeh

AMMAN — Public opinion on terrorism has significantly changed over the past year, with a majority of Jordanians classifying Al Qaeda as a terrorist rather than a “legitimate resistance organisation,” a poll showed Wednesday.

According to a study published by the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS), the percentage of respondents who consider Osama Ben Laden's Al Qaeda organisation as a legitimate resistance group dropped from 66.8 per cent in 2004 to 20 per cent in December 2005.

Similarly, a majority of Jordanians consider Iraq's Al Qaeda led by Abu Mussab Zarqawi to be a terrorist organisation.

According to the survey, 72.2 per cent of the polled national sample consider Al Qaeda in Iraq to be a terrorist organisation, while only 6.2 per cent said it was a legitimate resistance movement. A majority of public opinion leaders regarded both Ben Laden and Zarqawi's Al Qaeda as terrorist groups.

Pollsters told The Jordan Times they believe the Nov. 9 Amman bombings had a great impact on citizens' perception of terrorist organisations and acts.

They said the results indicate that one of the most important outcome of the bombings was the significant drop in the number of Jordanians supporting Ben Laden's Al Qaeda. In addition people were making a distinction between Ben Laden and Zarqawi's organisations.

The survey also revealed that public opinion was variable and changed its stance vis-à-vis terrorism depending on political developments in the region, pollster Fares Braizat said.

“It is reasonable to suggest that Jordanian public opinion regarding the issue of terrorism is not ideological,” Braizat added.

He said that he believes ending “the occupation of Palestine and Iraq would lead to a significant shift in Jordanian public opinion — and perhaps the general Arab public opinion — against terrorism.

“Ending the occupation may play a major role in delegitimising support and justification of terrorism,” Braizat added.

The poll was carried out between Dec. 1 and 7 to gauge public opinion on the issue of terrorism, especially following the bombings that rocked three Amman hotels and killed 60 people.

The poll, the second by CSS on the issue of terrorism, was conducted on two samples. The national sample consisted of 1,417 respondents distributed throughout the Kingdom, and the public opinion leaders sample (POL) of 669 respondents divided among seven groups, including businesspeople, political party leaders, professionals (lawyers, doctors, engineers and dentists), members of the media, leaders of professional associations, trade unions, high-ranking officials and university professors.

The poll showed that half of the national sample respondents considered Ben Laden's Al Qaeda to be a terrorist organisation, while around three quarters of respondents described Zarqawi's Al Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 Amman attacks, as a terrorist group.

However, a majority of the POL sample of respondents viewed Ben Laden's Al Qaeda (73.4 per cent) and Zarqawi's Al Qaeda (84.6 per cent) as terrorist organisations.

The poll also noted a significant shift in the percentage of respondents who reject the killing of civilians belonging to a state that is occupying a Muslim country.

With regards to organisations like Hamas and Hizbollah, the poll noted a significant drop in the percentage of respondents from both samples that view the two as legitimate resistance groups.

On the national level, the precentage of those who view Hamas as a legitimate resistance organisation dropped from 86.7 per cent in 2004 to 73.5 per cent in 2005. The same trends were evident with regards to Hizbollah, which saw a decline in the percentage of those who view the Lebanon-based group as a legitimate resistance organisation from 84 per cent in 2004 to 63.9 per cent in 2005.

As for POL, the poll showed a significant shift in the percentage of businesspeople who consider Hamas a legitimate resistance organisation, falling from 91 per cent in 2004 to 76.9 per cent now. A similar drop was also evident amongst the media community, from 94 per cent in 2004 to 84 per cent in 2005.

However, a majority of POL or 84 per cent still regard Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement.

The highest percentage or 100 per cent of respondents was among the sample of political parties, while the lowest percentage or 73.6 per cent was the professionals sample who identified Hamas as a legitimate organisation.

In regards to Lebanon's Hizbollah, 84.2 per cent of the entire sample viewed the group as a legitimate resistance organisation. The highest percentage was among the sample of political parties, with 98 per cent, while the lowest was with professionals with 75.8 per cent of respondents identifying it as a legitimate resistance organisation.

The survey revealed a tangible change in the way people view killing of Israeli and American civilians, as opposed to a non-significant change in the stance of opinion leaders about Israeli killing of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, and American forces operations in Iraq.

“These operations remain, to the Jordanian public, acts of terrorism,” the CSS said.

It said there has been a rise in the percentage of national sample respondents who see the killing of American civilians (9/11 attacks), as well as the killing of Israeli civilians inside Israel, as acts of terrorism.

The study said citizens make a distinction between killing American and Israeli civilians on the one hand, and killing Palestinian and Iraqi civilians on the other.

In 2004, 90 per cent of respondents considered the killing of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza by Israel to be a “terrorist” act. This opinion did not change in 2005.

When it comes to Israeli assassination of Palestinian political leaders in the West Bank and Gaza, 84 per cent in 2004 and 88.7 per cent of respondents in 2005 considered the acts to be “terrorist.”

In a similar notion, 86.3 per cent of respondents in 2004 and 78.3 per cent in 2005 regard US-led armed operations in Iraq as “terrorist” acts.

With regard to armed military operations carried out against US troops in Iraq, the majority of Jordanians, or 68.8 per cent in 2004 and 63.6 per cent in 2005, termed the attacks as “not terrorist.”

The poll showed similar results with the POL sample. It said the Arab-Israeli conflict and the occupation of Iraq had a large impact on shaping opinions.

While the majority of opinion leaders sampled, 83.4 per cent, view the 9/11 attacks on the US as a terrorist acts, and 82.8 per cent of respondents said they consider armed military operations against the US-led allied forces in Iraq to be non-terrorist acts.

However, 87 per cent of opinion leaders do consider the US-led armed operations in Iraq a “terrorist” act.

The majority of opinion leaders view the subway bombings in London, Sharm El Sheikh attacks, and the Amman hotel bombings as acts of terrorism (respectivly, 92 per cent, 95 per cent, 96 per cent). While two-thirds, or 63 per cent, of national sample respondents view the London bombings as terrorist acts, three quarters, or 77.4 per cent, view Sharm El Sheikh blasts as terrorist and 94 per cent find the Amman attacks as terrorist as well.

“It becomes clear that Jordanians take political factors into account. Political issues such as the Israeli occupation, the American support for the Israeli occupation, and the American occupation of Iraq, as well as the British role in the occupation of Iraq are taken into consideration when viewing attacks as terrorist or not terrorist, “ Braizat noted.