Reality poll

Voice of America: 32 Percent of Iraqi Respondents Strongly Support Moqtada al-Sadr:

An Iraqi public opinion poll to be released later this week indicates a growing number of people in the country say they support a radical Shiite Muslim cleric whose militia is fighting coalition forces.

In the survey, conducted by the year-old Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, 32 percent of the respondents said they strongly support the fiercely anti-coalition Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. Another 36 percent said they somewhat support the cleric, even though he is being sought by the coalition for his alleged involvement in the murder of a Shiite rival, who was killed last year.

The poll numbers place the radical cleric among the three most admired figures in the country, behind the top religious authority for the majority Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and the political head of one of the largest Shiite parties, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari.
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The head of the research center, Mr. Duleimi, said that the poll also shows that Iraqis want an interim government that has the power to make sweeping changes after the sovereignty handover on June 30.

In listing their priorities, nearly 82 percent said that they want a government that could implement economic reforms. More than 75 percent said the interim government should have the power to replace current governors and ministers. Finally, 74 percent said [the] government should have the power to order coalition forces to leave Iraq.

Meanwhile in Israel, teenagers believe in refuseniks, and conscientious objectors of all kinds, but around 60% had "strong anti-democratic tendencies."

A relatively large proportion of Israeli teens - 43 percent - support refusal to serve in the territories or refusal to eject settlers, compared with 25 percent of those aged 18 and older, according to a survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute two months ago.
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While 75 percent of adults said a soldier must not refuse an order to evacuate settlers, only 57 percent of teens agreed with that statement. A slightly smaller gap was found regarding the refusal to serve in the territories: 71 percent of adults compared to 57 percent of teens said soldiers cannot refuse on grounds that they object to Israel's policy toward Palestinians.

[....]teens of all political stripes assented to the refusal to evacuate settlers at similar rates - around 40 percent. In general, the survey found that teens are largely tolerant of ideological refusal motivated by reasons that are contrary to their own views.

The survey's authors found another cause for concern in teenagers' longing for "a strong leader" to head the country "instead of all the debates and laws." A high degree of support for this statement indicates strong anti-democratic tendencies among teens, whose response rate was 60 percent, compared to 58 percent among adults.
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It is possible that the reason for these positions is that teens are substantially less interested in political matters. Only 29 percent of teens demonstrated a reasonable level of political knowledge (i.e., were able to answer correctly two out of three relatively simple questions, such as who is the Knesset speaker), compared to 61 percent of adults. Only half of the teens surveyed expressed any interest in politics, compared with two-thirds of the adults.
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Among teens, 27 percent do not think they will remain in Israel, compared to 13 percent of adults. The situation is even more problematic when it comes to a sense of belonging: nearly half of the teens do not feel they are "part of the country and its problems," compared to a quarter of adults.

Israel would be a confusing place to grow up, worsened by the blanket drafting of 18-year-olds.

What is the point of all this? Numbers reflect reality. One-third of Iraqis like Sadr strongly, and another third somewhat like him. There's your silent majority, Mr Friedman.

Posted by HongPong at May 25, 2004 02:14 AM
Listed under Iraq , Israel-Palestine .