Pew Survey: As many as 14 percent of American Muslims think terrorist violence is 'justified'

A Pew Research survey suggests that 14 percent of American Muslims think suicide attacks and civilian bombings could be justified. A solid seven percent say such attacks are "sometimes" justified and one percent say "often" justified. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and Islam is the fastest growing religion. Muslims will overtake Christians globally by the end of this century.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - Pew Research has just published a survey about Muslims and Islam and it could keep you awake at night, thinking about the implications of the numbers.

At present, there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and the religion is the fastest growing on the planet. The rapid growth rate is due to a high birth rate, and the young average age of Muslims. 

"Muslims are also the youngest (median age of 23 years old in 2010) of all major religious groups, seven years younger than the median age of non-Muslims. As a result, a larger share of Muslims already are, or will soon be, at the point in their lives when they begin having children. This, combined with high fertility rates, will fuel Muslim population growth."

By the end of the present century, Muslims are expected to overtake Christians and be the largest religion on the planet.

The world's largest population of Muslims is found in Southeast Asia, in places like India and Indonesia.

While the majority of Muslims are pacifists, at least where their faith is concerned, there is a disturbing number of Muslims who think terrorist violence is justified.

Using data taken from a 2011 survey, Pew announced that:

"More generally, Muslims mostly say that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam are rarely or never justified, including 92% in Indonesia and 91% in Iraq. In the United States, a 2011 survey found that 86% of Muslims say that such tactics are rarely or never justified. An additional 7% say suicide bombings are sometimes justified and 1% say they are often justified in these circumstances."

This means that 14 percent of Muslims in the United States are at least neutral about the problem. And seven percent think they are "sometimes justified." One percent say "often."

Those figures may seem small, but they imply that out of a group of 10,000 people, 100 will be in the "often" category. About 1,400 will be in the sometimes column. That makes for 1,500 potential terrorists out of every 10,000 Muslims.