March 17 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Muslim nations are angry at the United States and a growing percentage of Europeans want a diplomatic and military divorce from Washington, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center released on Tuesday.
"There is still considerable hostility toward the U.S. in the Muslim countries surveyed," the survey showed.
"Overwhelming majorities in Jordan and Morocco believe suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable. As a point of comparison, slightly more people in those two countries say the same about Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis," it said.
"Doubts about the motives behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism abound, and a growing percentage of Europeans want foreign policy and security arrangements independent from the United States," the survey summary said.
"There is considerable support for the European Union to become as powerful as the United States," it added.
While hatred has diminished, "anger toward the United States remains pervasive" in predominantly Muslim countries surveyed.
While the United States is unpopular in the countries surveyed, Osama bin Laden, thought to be behind the hijacked plane attacks that killed about 3,000 people in America on Sept. 11, 2001, is popular, the survey reported.
The al Qaeda leader "is viewed favorably by large percentages in Pakistan (65 percent), Jordan (55 percent) and Morocco (45 percent). Even in Turkey, where bin Laden is highly unpopular, as many as 31 percent say that suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable," according to the report.
Majorities in the four Muslim nations surveyed said the "war on terrorism" is an effort to control Mideast oil and to dominate the world.
"There is broad agreement in nearly all of the countries surveyed -- the U.S. being a notable exception -- that the war in Iraq hurt, rather than helped, the war on terrorism," the report said.
