ONLY a very small minority of Muslims worldwide support terrorism, and most cite “narrow-minded fanaticism and violent extremism” as the aspect of the Muslim world they least admire, Gallup polls on relations with the West have suggested.
The poll finds that what Muslims most admire about the West are political freedom, liberty, fair judicial systems, and freedom of speech.
The Gallup Poll of the Muslim World is based on a series of surveys, starting from 2001, which were conducted in 35 predominantly Muslim nations and among significant Muslim populations in the West. It concludes: “Despite recent global events, majorities on both sides care about improving relations.”
It claims to be the first set of scientifically representative views from 1.3 billion Muslims around the world to indicate what they feel the West can do to improve relations with the world’s Muslim populations, and vice versa.
The poll — about to be published in a book commissioned by the Gallup Press, Who Speaks For Islam? What a billion Muslims really think — contradicts the perception that Muslims despise Western democracy.
The poll finds, however, that they want the West to “respect Islam” and stop interfering in the affairs of predominantly Muslim states. They do not want an American-defined democracy. The poll results suggest that relations between Muslims and Americans had deteriorated since 2001.
It concludes: “Muslims feel humiliated and assume the Western world is trying to impose its principles both on their faith and through government policies inside their own countries.” Saudi Arabia was found to have the most unfavourable view of the US (79 per cent) followed by Jordan and Pakistan, both at 65 per cent.
A survey in 2007 found that majorities in populations around the world believed that violent conflict between the West and the Muslim world could be avoided, but they were also pessimistic about the relationship between the two. Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians were the most likely to say that Muslim-Western relationships were worsening.
The poll set out to answer President Bush’s question after the 9/11 attacks: “Why do they [militant groups such as al-Qaeda] hate us?” John Esposito, Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, and co-author with Dalia Mogahead of the new book, believes that “more powerful counter-narratives” are needed in order to build understanding.
Phrases such as “the Muslim world and the West” and “clash of civilisations”, he feels, “fail to counter the growth of Islamaphobia and concepts of Islamofascism that say so much and do so much harm.
“Once-respectable terms such as ‘tolerance’ need to be replaced or transformed from the notion of ‘sufferance’ or ‘endurance’ of ‘the other’ and reinforced by terms that promote mutual understanding and equal respect.”
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