Muslim Views of Jews

"The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other", a large-scale attitudinal survey conducted by The Pew Research Center in 2006, puts the cards on the table when it comes to Muslim views of Jews.

Muslim Views of Jews

The study revealed endemic anti-Jewish sentiment in the Muslim world.

Percentage of Muslims with Unfavorable Views of Jews:

• Jordan - 100 percent
• Lebanon - 99 percent
• Egypt - 98 percent
• Morocco - 88 percent
• Indonesia - 76 percent
• Pakistan - 74 percent
• Turkey - 60 percent

Majorities in the Muslim world also believe that the victory of the militant group Hamas in Palestinian elections would "be helpful to a fair settlement between Israel and the Palestinians."

European Muslims generally expressed somewhat less negative views toward Jews than did Muslims elsewhere, which supports the belief that interaction improves tolerance.

Percentage of Muslims with Unfavorable Views of Jews:

• Poland - 27 percent
• Russia - 26 percent
• Germany - 21 percent
• Spain - 20 percent
• France - 16 percent
• Canada - 11 percent
• United States - 7 percent
• Great Britain - 6 percent

In addition, Muslims in certain countries see Jews conspiratorially, as being responsible for bad relations between Muslims and Westerners. 28 percent of Jordanians and 22 percent of Egyptians volunteered that Jews were to blame for bad relations between Muslims and the West, although Jews were not mentioned in the question.

Muslim Attitudes of the West and Westerners

The study found that overall Muslims blame the West for the bad relations, while Westerners tended to blame Muslims. Furthermore, Muslims in the Middle East and Asia depicted Westerners as immoral, selfish, and violent, while Westerners saw Muslims as fanatical.

Muslim Beliefs about September 11

One of the survey's most striking findings is that majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey - Muslim countries with fairly strong ties to the United States - said that they did not believe that Arabs carried out the September 11 attacks in the United States. In not one Muslim population polled does a majority believe that Arabs carried out the attacks.