One man's assimilated Muslim...

... might be another man's "18-29 year-old American Muslim who thinks it is 'justified' from time to time, to engage in suicide bombing" (of course, for the one who does the bombing, it's a "one and done" deal). The percentage of said Muslim youths is, according to a new Pew Research Center poll, 26%, which consists of 15% who say it is "sometimes/often" justified, and another 11% who think it is "rarely" justified (whew, what a relief!). Which means that one out of every four late teen/twenty-something Muslim in the U.S. is open to and even supportive of suicide bombings.

The good news: It could be worse. The same poll (download PDF here and go to page 54) finds that the percentage is 35% in Great Britain and 42% in France.

The bad news: Um, I've already covered that, haven't I?

Here's something to consider: What if a poll found out that 26% of American fundamentalist Christians thought it was alright to support or engage in blowing up innocent people? Do you think the headlines would be something along the lines of "Most U.S. Fundamentalist Christians reject suicide bombings"? Yet the Associated Press, as Michelle Malkin points out, ran the headline "Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings" when it first covered this story; it has since changed it to "Some US Muslims say suicide attacks OK". Other news outlets focus on the positives:

• "Study: US Muslims satisfied with life" (Washington Times)
• "Attacks In Islam's Name Not OK, Poll Finds" (KOCO)
• "Poll: Most US Muslims critical of extremism, al-Qaida" (York Dispatch)
• "Survey: Muslims largely assimilated in US" (DetNews.com)
• "Muslims assimilate better in US than Western Europe, poll finds" (IHT)
• "Muslims in US decidedly American: study" (CBC)

Nothing wrong, of course, with giving the big picture and pointing out the good along with the bad. But, again, I cannot help but wonder what the response would be if 26% of young Christians supported suicide bombings...

Comments

[Jeff Miller]

Another thought experiment would be - what if 1 percent of Christians supported abortion clinic bombings? The headlines would write themselves for the MSM.

[Ed Peters]

Jeff, how'bout: "One percent of Christians misunderstand their own beautiful tradition."