The majority of respondents to a recent YouGov poll inside Pakistan don't believe the American version of what happened in the Abbottabad compound last week. 66% of respondents say bin Laden was not killed in the US raid.
In addition:
- 75% disapprove of the US action; 11% approve
- 52% think that the celebrations in the US following the announcement of bin Laden’s death will incite further violence against the US
- 52% think that people in Pakistan will be more at risk from attacks by Al Qaeda as a result of the death of Osama bin Laden
The survey also examined Pakistani perceptions of bin Laden himself:
- 48% think he was ‘not a true Muslin leader’
- 52% think he will now be seen as a ‘Martyr of Islam’, to at least certain groups
- 22% think he authorised the 9/11 attacks, with 46% thinking Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda had nothing to do with the attacks
Meanwhile, Pakistani fears that both the US and their own country has become less safe since the announcement of bin Laden’s death are mirrored by a similar consensus in the UK, as a recent survey of our British panel found.
Fieldwork was undertaken 4th May - to 5th May 2011. The survey was carried out online and is broadly representative of the online population in Pakistan. Total sample size was 1,039 Pakistani residents.
See the survey details and full results here
LONDON 5 May 2011 - “At a time of rapid and profound change, YouGov has expanded its activity and as well as continuing to run surveys across the Middle East; including Syria, Egypt, Tunisia & Bahrain, we have widened our panel to include India and most recently Pakistan,” states Stephan Shakespeare, CEO and Co-Founder of YouGov. “We have found despite the sensitivity of certain subject matters, using our online approach, respondents have been incredibly forthcoming and frank.”
“Over 5,000 people have been recruited to our panel in Pakistan in the last 2 weeks alone – and have responded on topics ranging from consumer confidence to news of the death of Osama bin Laden. These illuminating results illustrate how the internet has provided whole new channels through which we can understand public opinion. The current survey has been conducted in partnership with Cambridge University for our upcoming YouGov Global Perspectives Conference, “The networked consumer and the diffusion of power.””
A full analysis of these results by Dr Joel Faulkner Rogers appears on the YouGov@Cambridge website here.
YouGov@Cambridge is a new kind of university think-tank, uniting world experts with YouGov polling in one place. Click here to visit YouGov@Cambridge where you’ll find the latest analysis and commentary from Cambridge thinkers, YouGov analysts and a wealth of guest-experts on a range of national and international issues. Latest editorials from: David Blunkett; Charles Clarke; Baroness Perry; Baroness Neuberger; F.W de Klerk; Prof. Andrew Gamble (Head of Department - POLIS); Prof. Chris Hill and Dr Glen Rangwala.
