Relationships among Terrorism-Using Groups, Supporters, Constituencies, Target Groups, and General Populations

A terrorist group cannot long survive without the support of those who sympathize with the cause that the terrorists claim to represent. This support requires and is expressed in beliefs and sentiments that justify terrorist violence over non-violent politics and terrorists over moderates as political leaders. The general goal of this project is to use public opinion surveys of Muslim countries to track fluctuations in support for Islamist terrorism, and to understand the origins of these fluctuations in a way that can be used to undermine support for terrorism using repeated surveys in Muslim countries.