This Robin Wright artcile in the Washington Post from July 15th (OK, so Im a bit behind in my reading!) is important. It argues that support for violence and bin Laden is down among Muslims, in some cases dramatically, according to Pew Research Center. The poll concludes: "Most Muslim publics are expressing less support for terrorism than in the past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries, and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defense of Islam." Although attitudes regarding Iraq were more divided, yet the support for terrorist/insurgent bombings dropped by 20% from last year. The results also show a widespread support for democracy.
Here is the whole of the poll, from Pew Global Attitudes Project. Worth a look.
Perhaps more and more Muslims are catching on to the fact that bin Laden and his myrmidons will gleefully slaughter any Muslim whom they see as getting in the way of the neo-caliphate totalitarian project that actuates al-Qaeda.
It almost cant be stressed enough that Sunni Salafists like bin Laden and Zarqawi arguably hate their "enemy brothers" (such as Shiites and other jahiliyah or backsliders) more even than they hate the infidels such as us.
What is going on now is a civil war w/in the Muslim world as much as it is a war of a certain fanatical strain w/in Islam against the West.
The brighter Muslims can also probably see that given the real asymmetries of hard power across the globe, its the Muslim world that stands to take the worst hits should the Salafis ever commit an enormity of the kind which so far they have only dreamed of but which they would love to inflict, given half a chance.