The snippets below were written and published by the Pew Research Global Attitudes Project:
More than two years after the death of Osama bin Laden, concern about Islamic extremism remains widespread among Muslims from South Asia to the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa. Across 11 Muslim publics surveyed by the Pew Research Center, a median of 67% say they are somewhat or very concerned about Islamic extremism. In five countries – Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey and Indonesia – Muslim worries about extremism have increased in the past year.Well, that's certainly hopeful, although it must be noted that Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria and Gaza do not necessarily share this concern with Islamic extremism.
Widespread Muslim concern about Islamic extremism is generally coupled with rejection of suicide bombing and other forms of violence in the name of Islam. However, in some countries, substantial minorities of Muslims say attacks on civilians are at least sometimes justified to defend Islam from its enemies; in the Palestinian territories, a majority of Muslims hold this view.
The question is, what are we to make of these numbers? I would argue that we can say two things definitively. The first is that the majority of Arabs within Judea and Samaria and Gaza are something other than civilized. Excuse me, but when a majority of people within a specific place think that suicide bombing is just dandy than there is something seriously wrong with their culture.
It is a culture of death.
The second thing to note is the reluctance among so many westerners - particularly of the progressive variety - to condemn this culture of death for what it is. The truth is that many westerners blame the Jews in the Middle East for Arab attitudes because they believe those attitudes are grounded in "occupation." They might have a point accept for the fact that Arab citizens of Israel have more freedom, civil liberties, and financial well-being than Arabs anyplace else throughout that part of the world. Furthermore, Arabs in Judea and Samaria are almost entirely under the control of the Palestinian Authority and even they have it significantly better than their cousins throughout most of the rest of the Arab world.
The western left has got to stop blaming the Jews for the dysfunction of local Arab culture. It is not the fault of Jewish Israelis if Arabs in Judea and Samaria are enamored of a cult of death. Those people could be living free and prosperous lives if they had ever shown a significant inclination to accept the Jews in their midst, but they never did. Just as they did not in 1947 and 1948, so they have not since the middle of the 7th century and the reasons for that have to do with extremely hateful religious bigotry.
The only thing that has changed is that the Jews of the Middle East, after 1,300 years of abuse and persecution and dhimmitude, finally took their country back.
Good for them.
What I want to see is the Tibetans do likewise and the Kurds finally gain a measure of self-determination and self-defense.
Heck, maybe the Copts should carve out a little country for themselves within Egypt. Why not? If the world is so hell-bent on taking a giant chunk out of Israel in order to give it to the most brutal people on the planet, then why shouldn't the Copts have a state for themselves in Egypt?
Given the fact that they are being chased out of their own country and Egyptian Muslims are burning down their churches, they certainly deserve it more than do the so-called "Palestinians."
The Copts are a persecuted indigenous minority within Egypt. Maybe the Palestinian-Arabs should get their state sometime after the Copts get theirs.