Interesting opinions but hardly surprising.  I wonder what the stats would be
like if this was a more general survey and more indicative of opinions around
the world.


PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- Residents of nine Muslim countries called the
United States "ruthless and arrogant" in a new poll, with most describing
themselves as "resentful" of the superpower.

The Gallup poll found that by a 2-to-1 margin, residents in these nations
express an unfavorable opinion of the United States, and a majority also
indicated their displeasure with President Bush.

Most Muslims surveyed expressed the view that the September 11 terrorist
attacks on the United States were not justified morally, but larger
majorities labeled U.S. military action in Afghanistan "morally
unjustifiable."

Sixty-one percent said they did not believe Arab groups carried out the
September 11 terrorist attacks.

  Researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with 9,924 residents of
Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi
Arabia to gauge public opinion in those countries following the September 11
attacks. About half of the world's Muslim population lives in those nine
countries. Not every question was asked in every nation.

The overall view was not a positive one for the United States: 53 percent of
the people questioned had unfavorable opinions of the United States, while 22
percent had favorable opinions.

Most respondents said they thought the United States was aggressive and
biased against Islamic values. Specifically, they cited a bias against
Palestinians.

They also view American values as deeply materialist and secular and American
culture as a corrupting influence on their societies, the poll found.

Residents of Lebanon had the highest favorable opinion of the United States,
at 41 percent, followed by NATO ally Turkey with 40 percent. The lowest
numbers came from Pakistan, at 5 percent.

Twenty-eight percent of Kuwaitis, 27 percent of Indonesians, 22 percent of
Jordanians, 22 percent of Moroccans, 16 percent of Saudi Arabians and 14
percent of Iranians surveyed had a favorable view of the United States.

On Bush, 58 percent of those surveyed had unfavorable opinions, compared with
11 percent who had favorable views.

Of those surveyed, 67 percent saw the September 11 attacks as morally
unjustified, while 15 percent of the respondents said they were morally
justified. But 77 percent said the U.S. military action in Afghanistan was
morally unjustified, compared with 9 percent who said it was morally
justified.

The interviews were conducted between December and January. The respondents
were randomly selected and did not know a U.S. firm was sponsoring the poll.

Gallup said the sampling error was plus or minus 1 percentage point for
questions asked in all nine countries and plus or minus 4 percentage points
for questions broken down by individual nations.

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