Ric Ottaiano: Still Lying

Here we go again. Ric Ottaiano, who has been busted for his ridiculously transparent lies before, is back with another idiotic fabrication:

American Muslims were asked “Do you personally feel [suicide bombing] is often justified to defend Islam, sometimes justified, rarely justified, or never justified?” In response, 26% found it justified, while 9% refused to answer.

Nope. Ottaiano is lying again. What does the Pew Research report [PDF] actually say?

In addition to being more concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism, Muslims in the U.S. are far less likely than Muslims in other parts of the world to accept suicide bombing as a justifiable tactic. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. (78%) say that the use of suicide bombing against civilian targets to defend Islam from its enemies is never justified. In this regard, American Muslims are more opposed to suicide bombing than are Muslims in nine of the 10 other countries surveyed in 2006; opposition is somewhat greater among Muslims in Germany (83%).

Overall, 8% of Muslim Americans say suicide bombings against civilian targets tactics are often (1%) or sometimes (7%) justified in the defense of Islam. Muslims in France, Spain and Great Britain were twice as likely as Muslims in the U.S. to say suicide bombing can be often or sometimes justified, and acceptance of the tactic is far more widespread among Muslims in Nigeria, Jordan and Egypt.

Where does Ottaiano get the 26% figure?

About a quarter (26%) of younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombing can at least rarely be justified, 17 percentage points higher than the proportion of Muslims ages 30 and older (9%) who share that view. The age gap is about as wide in Great Britain (18 percentage points) but somewhat narrower in Germany (12 points), France (11 points) and Spain (7 points).

Ottaiano has deliberately conflated the poll results for Muslims under 30 with the figure for all Muslims. It’s vitally important to bigots like Ric Ottaiano to do everything possible to demonize the scapegoats du jour, and he has no compunction about lying if it helps the cause.

Oh, but it gets better. Ottaiano goes on to ask:

Imagine if a poll of American Christians found that over one quarter of them supported the concept of their co-religionists blowing themselves up in an effort to kill as many innocent people as possible. No one would be discussing the “root cause” of this disaffection within the Christian community. There would simply, and rightly, be wholesale condemnation of those Christians who supported such a barbaric practice and, more importantly, those Christians who did not speak out unequivocally and loudly against it.

Well, let’s look at this matter a little more closely. As Glenn Greenwald discussed a few weeks ago, a University of Maryland poll [PDF] asked the following question of Americans and Iranians last December:

Some people think that bombing and other types of attacks intentionally aimed at civilians are sometimes justified while others think that this kind of violence is never justified. Do you personally feel that such attacks are often justified, sometimes justified, rarely justified, or never justified?

A majority of Americans (51%) stated that they felt that intentional attacks against civilians were justified in at least some instance. Compare that to just 16% of Iranians who found that such attacks could be justified.

I look forward with anticipation to seeing Ric Ottaiano issue ringing condemnations both of his fellow Americans who believe that intentionally attacking innocent civilians is an acceptable tactic, and more importantly, of his fellow Americans who did not speak out unequivocally and loudly against it. I am not, however, going to hold my breath. Ottaiano, like most bigots, will either entirely ignore inconvenient facts such as these, or find a way to rationalize away the evidence that Americans hold no moral high ground when it comes to condoning the killing of civilians.