While the majority of Jordanians still consider Al Qaeda to be a terrorist group, some of them were angered by the US troops' killing of Al Qaeda's Iraq leader, Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, a recent poll showed.
The poll, which was conducted on a national sample and a public opinion leaders' sample, showed that 78.8 percent of opinion leaders sampled were angered by Zarqawi's death while 30 percent of the national sample felt the same way.
According to The University of Jordan's Center for Strategic Studies' (CSS) pollsters, negative feelings over Zarqawi's death mirrored people's anger over US policies in the region.
The poll showed that while the majority of Jordanians were happy to see Zarqawi go, 30 percent of the national sample regretted his death "because he was a fighter, a Muslim, and an Arab [who] fought against the US occupation of Iraq."
"Many oppose US policies and its occupation of Iraq and therefore regard the fight against the US military as legitimate. But at the same time this does not mean that these people approve or agree with Zarqawi's ideologies," says pollster Mohammed Masri.
Zarqawi, who was killed by US forces on June 9, was responsible for last November's Amman triple bombings that killed 60 people, mostly Jordanians.
The poll showed that a majority of Jordanians condemned as "politically unacceptable" a condolence call by four Islamist deputies to Zarqawi's family; the four lawmakers in question are currently detained for investigation over charges of incitement.
Meanwhile, the survey revealed a slight shift in opinion regarding perceptions of Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda; the June 18 to 23 survey showed that 41.1 percent of respondents considered Al Qaeda to be a terrorist group compared to 48.9 percent in a December 2005 poll that followed the bombings.
Observers are in agreement that people's anger over the bombings has subsided since then and that the recent developments in Iraq and "the US-blessed" Israeli assault on Gaza explain this shift in perception.
The survey also showed that the Jordanians distinguish between "Bin Laden's Al Qaeda" and "Iraq's Al Qaeda"; 54 percent of the national sample considers the group in Iraq to be a terrorist one, while 15.6 percent still see it as a legitimate resistance group.
This percentage still showed a considerable tilt in opinion since last year's bombings, when the poll then revealed that 72.2 percent thought Iraq's Al Qaeda to be a terrorist organization.
Masri attributed this change of heart to the increase of US military operations in Iraq as well as the cooling of emotions since the Amman bombings.
The survey also showed that most Jordanians consider Hamas and Hizbullah to be legitimate resistance movements.
69.1 percent of the national sample and 82 percent of the public leaders' view Hamas as a legitimate resistance organization. Meanwhile, 63.3 percent of the national sample and 82.4 of the public leaders surveyed feel the same way about the Lebanon-based Hizbullah.
Furthermore, a staggering majority of Jordanians sampled (89.1 percent) agreed that Israeli assassinations of Palestinian political leaders in the West Bank and Gaza were "terrorist activities." Similarly, 77.3 percent labeled US operations in Iraq as "acts of terrorism."
They also sanction military operations against US forces in Iraq.
However, the majority of Jordanians (both samples) condemned as terrorism the attacks in the US, London, Sharm El Sheikh, and Amman.
In conclusion, pollsters said that Jordanians' perception of terrorism was greatly affected by regional developments especially those related to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the US support of it as well as the continued American occupation of Iraq.
"Remove these factors and the results will change dramatically," says one pollster.
Zarqawi's death angered some Jordanians, poll shows
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