Pakistani Public Opinion

The latest poll on the Pakistani Public Opinion released on Thursday, 13 August 2009 by The Pew Global Project Attitudes is quite interesting. The poll finds that only 9% of Pakistanis have a favourable opinion of al Qaeda and 10% of Taliban. This means that most of Pakistanis oppose al Qaeda (61%) and Taliban (70%). The poll indicates that 79% of Pakistanis are concerned with extremism in the country. While these findings confirm the notion that less and less people support al Qaeda, Taliban and extremism, ironically, the poll shows that Pakistanis embraces some of the severe laws that are usually associated with the Taliban and al Qaeda. This can be seen in the following findings: 83% favour stoning adulterers, 80% favour whipping or cutting off hands of thieves and 78% favour death penalty for those who leave Islam. Click here to view the whole report.