Jordanians among the most worried about extremist threat — poll

AMMAN — Fear of Islamic extremism is on the rise among Jordanians, according to a poll published by the Pew Research Centre on Monday. 

The survey, which involved 14,244 respondents in 14 countries across the Muslim world between April 10 and May 25 this year, showed a significant rise in anti-extremism across the Muslim world, with Jordan ranking third in many of the question categories. 

Sixty-two per cent of Jordanians voiced concern about intra-state extremism, up 8 per cent since 2013 and 13 per cent since 2012, according to the report. 

This ranks Jordan fourth behind Egypt (75 per cent), Tunisia (80 per cent) and Lebanon (92 per cent), indicating Jordanians are among the most worried about an extremist threat in the Middle East. 

Support for armed Islamic groups, including Hamas and Hizbollah, are also in decline, the report shows. 

Recent developments in the Palestinian government, which saw a national unity government between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hamas, have failed to sway public opinion in Jordan, with 61 per cent of respondents asserting a negative view of the neighbouring state’s political organisation and a further 1 per cent abstaining or undecided. 

Hizbollah received similarly high disdain, with 81 per cent of the population reporting an unfavourable opinion of the group, according to the poll figures. 

Concern about extremism among Jordanians has increased exponentially over the past two years, as a result of the steady migration of more than 600,000 refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war, the study shows. A report published by the Pew Research Centre in September 2013 indicated that citizens of Syria’s neighbouring states, including Jordan, were worried that the turmoil could spill across the border, leading to violent confrontations. 

As a result 6 in 10 Jordanians are currently concerned about the extremist threat, compared with just over 4 in 10 in 2012, according to results of the same survey carried out in 2012.

The area of highest concern for Jordanians is suicide bombing, the study shows. 

Today 85 per cent of Jordanian respondents share significant anti-terrorist attacks sentiments. This number has risen exponentially since the shocking series of bombings on three hotels in Amman in 2005, according to the Pew Research Centre’s data. In 2005, the same report showed a majority support for the use of suicide bombing in religious inspired attacks, with 57 per cent of respondents indicating some support for terrorist attacks on civilians. Since then this number has declined steadily, with just 15 per cent of those questioned in 2014 advocating the tactic, the figures show. 

The report, conducted before the takeover of Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has yet to show how the recent turmoil will affect opinion in Jordan.