Poll Stunner: These American Blacks OK with Violent Attacks

The most dangerous Muslims in America may be black converts to Islam, according to a shocking new poll by the Pew Research Center.

African-American Muslims tend to hold the most violent views among U.S. Muslims surveyed by Pew in a poll released this week.

Fully 28 percent of U.S.-born black Muslim respondents said “suicide bombings and other violence against civilians” can be justified sometimes or at least in rare cases. That compares with 9 percent of foreign-born Muslims who hold the same view.

Pew also found that 11 percent of black Muslims living in the U.S. have a favorable opinion of al-Qaida–more than double the share of U.S. Muslims overall who hold that view. Another 21 percent of black Muslims hold only mildly unfavorable views of the terrorist organization responsible for attacking America 10 years ago; while 56 percent of that segment of the Muslim population hold very unfavorable views.

The survey results are troubling, because U.S. officials say al-Qaida in recent years has stepped up its efforts to recruit African-Americans to target the homeland for terrorist attacks. English-speaking blacks do not fit the prevailing Middle Eastern terrorist profile, officials say, and al-Qaida recruiters believe they have a better chance of slipping through security checkpoints.

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In July, black convert Carlos Bledsoe, aka Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, was sentenced to life in prison for gunning down two U.S. Army soldiers outside a Little Rock, Ark., Army recruiting station.

Bledsoe said he didn’t commit any crime when he shot Army Pvt. William Long to death and wounded Army Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula as they took a smoke break on the morning of June 1, 2009.

During an interrogation session, Bledsoe told Little Rock police and the FBI that the shooting was a holy war and that he was not guilty of murder.

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[Editor’s Note: View Pew’s full report on American Muslims here.]