This poll would seem to indicate that we've got a much bigger problem with the Islamic world than a few extremists at the fringes causing trouble (which is, let's face it, no big surprise to most people)

"More than 70 percent of Egyptians, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Moroccans believe the United States is trying to weaken and divide the Islamic world, a poll released on Tuesday showed.

...The face-to-face survey, of between 1,000 and 1,200 people in each country from December to February, also found about 30 percent approved of attacks on U.S. military in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf.

..."Attitudes toward al Qaeda are complex. On average, only three in ten view
Osama bin Laden positively. Many respondents express mixed feelings about bin Laden and his followers and many others decline to answer," WorldPublicOpinion.org said.

More than half believed al Qaeda's goals included achieving a strict application of Sharia law in every Islamic country, with more than 70 percent agreeing with that aim.

More than 50 percent believed the militant Islamist group was pushing the United States to remove its bases and military forces from all Islamic countries and 63 percent agreed with that goal.

But the poll found uncertainty about whether al Qaeda was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. Some 20 percent believed the U.S. government was behind the attacks.

"On average less than one in four believes al Qaeda was responsible for September 11th attacks. Pakistanis are the most skeptical -- only 3 percent think al Qaeda did it," said WorldPublicOpinion.org."

Let's see here...

About 30% of Muslims approve of attacks on US forces that are in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the permission of their governments, helping those nations to become democracies. Similarly, about 30% of Muslims view Osama bin Laden, a guy who arranged the deliberate murder of thousands of innocent civilians, in a positive fashion. 70% of Muslims support Sharia law, which is a primitive, backwards, misogynistic code of laws that no real "moderate" could ever support. Then, there's another 75% who are conspiracy kooks.

These are just not numbers that inspire confidence, especially since there is no test designed that can separate out a loony, terrorist loving, pro-Sharia Muslim from a Westernized Muslim who loves God, country, and apple pie.

When you look at numbers like this, I gotta tell you, it forces you to consider some very tough, very uncomfortable questions about who should be allowed to come into this country.

For example, Sharia is not compatible with the Constitution, American culture, or American democracy. If 70% of Muslims in Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia and Morocco want Sharia and there's no way to reliably separate them out from Muslims who don't, then doesn't that mean that logically, we should think twice about allowing Muslims from those countries to emigrate to the United States? Even if that weren't a problem, if 3 out of every 10 Muslims coming to the US from those countries loves Osama Bin Laden, then aren't we importing a potential 9/11 hijacking crew-in-waiting into our country every time we hand out 75 visas to people from those nations?

We can try to pretend that we're just talking about a few bad Islamic seeds here, but the more polling data like that comes out, the more implausible that sort of comforting thought becomes.