Increased concerns about extremism in MENA, South Asia

Fears about extremism are rising in nations from the Middle East and North Africa to South Asia, according to a new poll.
Concern about extremism has increased in the past 12 months amid the dragging war in Syria and attacks by Nigeria’s Boko Haram, the Pew Research Center said after interviewing more than 14,200 people in 14 countries.
People around the world are worried about the groups such as al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, and their atrocities the Middle East and North Africa.
The review was carried out from April 10 to May 25, before the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)- now renamed the Islamic State – took over the northern Iraqi town of Mosul in a lightning offensive.
In Lebanon, which shares a border with Syria, as many as 92 percent of those interviewed from Sunni, Shia and Christian communities said they were worried about extremism.
Concern has also risen in Jordan and Turkey, both of which border Syria and have taken in significant numbers of refugees fleeing the three-year war, in which extremists have increasingly moved into the chaos.
“In Asia, strong majorities in Bangladesh (69 percent), Pakistan (66 percent) and Malaysia (63 percent) are concerned about extremism,” the Pew report said.
However, in Indonesia such fears were not shared with only four in ten people voicing any anxiety about extremism.
An overwhelming majority of Nigerians (79 percent) were against Boko Haram, behind the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls earlier this year, while 59 percent of Pakistanis said they have no love for the Taliban.