Jordanians show little support for Ben Laden's group 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Muslim majorities in Jordan, among an arc of five countries from Egypt to Pakistan, have little good to say about Al Qaeda one year after American commandos killed the terror group's leader, a poll shows.

Most of the views expressed by Muslims in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Pakistan were overwhelmingly negative in the poll conducted as part of the Pew Research Centre's Global Attitudes Project, released Monday. The organisation cautioned that findings in Pakistan, where US Navy SEALs killed Osama Ben Laden on May 1, 2011, did not include responses from areas holding 18 per cent of the population; the districts were too dangerous for pollsters to operate.

The poll found overwhelmingly unfavourable numbers in Egypt, 71 per cent to 21 per cent; Jordan, 77 per cent to 15 per cent; Turkey, 73 per cent to 6 per cent; and Lebanon, 98 per cent to 2 per cent. The areas of Pakistan polled found 55 per cent negative, 13 per cent positive.

Pew said support for Ben Laden had been ebbing considerably before his death. In Jordan, for instance, 61 per cent of respondents told pollsters in 2007 they had confidence that the terrorist leader would do the right thing. The next year, after Al Qaeda suicide attacks in Amman, that number dropped to 24 per cent, and by last year it was lower still at 13 per cent.

The margin of error on the latest poll varied according to the country but ranged from 4.2 percentage points to 5.2 percentage points.