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Moderator: Erin Brummett |
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Erin: Welcome to T2A chat for March 19th. We’re talking about a new study and one of the largest on Muslim populations worldwide. It indicates little is known about what majorities of this community really think and feel. We’re speaking with a co-author of the study about values, goals and religious beliefs of 90-percent of the world’s Muslims. Joining T2A is John Esposito, a leading expert on the Muslim world.
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Tayyab Ajmal, Pakistan: Being a Muslim I do respect all other religions and minorities. Why are Muslims viewed with hatred? Who do you think is responsible?
Professor Esposito: I think that one of the major reasons for this perception is the fact that there have been widespread terorrist attacks not only across the Muslim world but in Europe and America. And for many who don't know very much about Islam or Muslims, they make their judgments in light of these esxplosive headline events. I think another reason is that there are also people out there, political commentators, some in the media, some sort of right wing religious leaders who don't distinguish between Islam and Muslim extremism but who engage in anti-Muslim rhetoric or anti-Muslim statements.
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Rana Hanan, United Kingdom: Don't you think its today's media's responsibility to bridge optimistic thoughts on Muslims, which seems not to have happened yet. What do you think?
Professor Esposito: The media does need to emphasize along with the perfectly legitimate stories on extremism and terrorism. They need to emphasize more of what the realities are in terms of the mainstream Muslim society and the religion of Islam. Some of the media do this but the fact is the entire way in which the media functions is to attract readers and viewers and what does this usually are conflicts and threats and so that's also what drives the media in that the media is in a very competitive market and looking for the biggest possible audience.
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A C Rathinavel, India (email): This is a sensitive issue. Why do so many in the world see Muslims in a negative way even though they are highly religious? How strong are fanatical influences?
Professor Esposito: The reality is that the vast majority of Muslims like the vast majority of Hindus, Christians, Jews are following their faith and function within mainstream society. The number of fanatics or terrorists is a very very small number but they are obviously dangerous and deadly in a world of global terrorism. Our gallup world poll looked at Muslims in some 35 countries and represents the voices of about one billion Muslims and there we discovered that 93-percent were what we call moderate Muslims and 7 percent were politically radicalized, but even here these were not people who engage in violence directly, but those who are alienated from their authoritarian governments, and certainly from the West in terms of American and European foreign policies towards the Muslim world. But again even these people are not people engaging in violence - but what can be worrisome is that if the there's not more sensitivity to the kinds of foreign policies conducted by the U.S. and some European countries when it comes to the invasion and occupation of countries and support for authoritarian regimes, then the risk is that some of these people will themselves become attracted to or recruited by extremists. This information is in our new book Who Speaks for Islam: What A Billion Muslims Really Think.
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Robert Tan, Singapore (email): What is the authoritative source of values, goals, and beliefs of the majority of Muslims? Aren’t there differences (and contradictions – sorry if it is not true) in the fundamental values, goals, and beliefs in the Muslim world? Which ones are true and valid? Is it true that Islamization of the world is one of the goals of the majority of Muslims?
Professor Esposito: Like all religions, there are different intrepretations and schools of thought - that's why there are so many forms of Christianity, of Judaism, Buddhism, etc. In Islam, you have two major branches, Sunni and Shiah, as well as a variety of schools of law and thought. The fundamental basis for Muslim values would be the Koran which Muslims believe is God's revealed word and the example of the Prophet Mohamed, but from that point Muslims then intrepret those sources and as a result you wind up with not only common beliefs and values but also some very distinctive differences. To see this question and others answered briefly, see my book, What Everyone Needs To Know About Islam, which is a question and answer book.
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B. Mehta, India (email): Are the authors of the Koran and of Sharia the same or two different persons? I have heard that the Sharia law of the Muslims lays down harsh and cruel punishment for various misdemeanors or crimes. Could these be attributed to the Prophet Mohamed who is considered great and kind?
Professor Esposito: Muslims believe that the Koran has no human author, it's author is divine, Allah or God. Islamic law is based on sacred sources, the Koran and the example of the Prophet, but much of the law comes from human intrepretation and conclusions in light of these sacred sources. Therefore Islamic law itself is a combination of both the divine and the human and this is what allows for a great deal not only of commonality but also diversity, discussion, debate and differences.
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Erin: Who is or should be most surprised by the results of this survey?
Professor Esposito: I think certainly some members of the Bush administration, of Tony Blair's administration, the neo-cons who were so influential in the recent past, and some of your more strident right wing politicians and political commentators, because in many cases, the conventional wisdom that many accepted proves not to be true on many issues or questions such as Why do they hate us? Is Islam compatible with democracy? The issue of women's rights...much that is there will surprise many people. The value of this exhaustive polling and study is that it now enables people to see what vast majorities of Muslims really believe, as opposed to their being dependent simply on the differing points of view of both experts and pseudo experts.
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Abrar, Ireland: What prompted the study and book...are there any deficiencies in today's Muslims?
Professor Esposito: The study actually is part of a much broader study and that is that the gallup organization decided to do a world poll of most of the countries in the world and within that study are some 35 Muslim countries and this study will continue on every year for the next 100 years, so this is part of a broader study and in light of the data from the Muslim study and some of it very different than many might have expected, it was decided to then write this book. With regard to deficiencies, Muslims are human beings, so like all believers and unbelievers, they have deficiencies. This is simply a reality.
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Erin: What real impact is this survey expected to have?
Professor Esposito: I think that the survey has the potential for multiple impacts, number 1: for policymakers, for some it will give them a different but also a surer basis for making policy, that is they can now let the data lead both the discussion and the formulation of policy -- when one asks a lot of critical questions about Muslims about their attitudes and values. It certainly opens the way for one to compete more effectively in the area of public diplomacy because one does see that the vast majorities of Muslims are not simply blindly anti-Western but in fact the causes for anti-Americanism are rooted in the perception or experience that some have of feeling that Muslims are denigrated, that there's a double standard in the promotion of democracy and human rights in the Muslim world, a concern about interference or invasion or occupation but at the same time, one sees that the vast majorities of Muslims admire America and the West in terms of its freeedoms, of its values, its technology, work ethic -- so there is a basis for more effectively not only competing for this majority but also addressing the 7 percent that are politically radicalized and therefore could potentially become more alientated and some could be drawn to extemist groups. The data also should be of interest to media, to corporate leaders who are both present in the Muslims world but also debating about whether to invest in that part of the world and to religious leaders and average citizens in the West, so while being concerned about security, they don't overreact regarding the civi liberties of Muslims and have a better fix on what the foreing policy issues are.
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Erin: What struck you about the survey – what were you expecting?
Professor Esposito: What struck me was, because I came in on this after a good deal of the initial survey was done -- the fact that here we had data that in fact challenged a lot of the excessively exaggerated and negative perceptions of Muslims, and that went against a good deal of conventional widsom, for example equating anti-Americanism with hatred...hatred is something terrorists have but anti-Americanism is something many other parts of the world have...the data shows a vast majority of muslims want greater political participation, democracy, human rights -- also the ability to point data and say, just as majorities of Americans are concerned about security and dangers of extremism, so are majorities of Muslims, it's something a lot in the West don't think about -- or again when one talks about the compatibility of Islam and democracy, the facts on the ground are majorities of Muslims want democracy, not necessarily completedly American or Western in style but the nuts and bolts of what it means to live in a more democratic society. And certainly I was struck by the fact we have hard data to say there arelots of problems involving women but the fact is majorities of women and men in the Muslim world believe that women should have equal rights, whether the right to education, a job, to vote, that's there are in majorities of countries. So there's a lot of that kind of interesting data. What surprised me was the extent to which those who are alienated, that 7 percent who are politically radicalized, the extent to which they are in fact people who do want better relations with the West, who do believe that democracy is important to progress, but are far more cynical and unbelieving that they will get these kinds of things because they believe that Western policy does not support self-determination in the Muslim world and that America in particular is seen as arrogant, unilateral, if you will neo-clolonial -- it's interesting especially whan you consider those seen as politically radicalized tend to be better-educated, better-employed and more internationally aware, and even more optimistic about their own individual lives. So given that profile some of these other conclusions are very intersting and very challenging.
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Erin: What beyond this survey could truly change misperceptions of Muslim society?
Professor Esposito: One of the realities that polling also has discovered is that in many cases people's opinions can change simply by knowing and engaging a Muslim, that people who have never engaged a Muslim before can be more prone to believing just about anything, but if they get to know a Muslim, they are more open and this shouldn't surprised because in many cases, those with limited experience with a particular ethnic group or religion are going to be subject to generalizations about these ethnic groups or a particular religion, they'll believe what someone else tells them or what they read in the newspaper or see on television...so creating situations where there's more personal contact. In some societies non Muslims do dengage with Muslims, but in some societies there are entire areas where there are no Muslims. I grew up in an Italian Catholic area of Brooklyn, New York with limited contact with other religions so probably based on some media incident or something a friend or reliatve said, I'd be more likely to believe those statements. This is especially compounded when you have the kind of situation that we have today that there are people with not much contact with Islam or Muslims and the only contact they sometimes have is the kind of extremist rhetoric or terrorist actions they see on television without having the broader context and experience to place these pictures they see, they naturally can generalize from all of that.
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Erin: What are the indications Westerners/Americans are making more of an effort to understand Muslims?
Professor Esposito: It's very clear in recent years that for example, there are workshops being conducted by experts for high school teachers and college teachers so they can learn more about Islam and the Muslim world -- in recent years in many of our schools and universities we see a tremendous increase in courses that deal with Islamic studies -- certainly there have been the development of inter-religious groups, contacts between some Mosques, churchs and synagogues -- there is more but no enough coverage on tv -- the situation with movies is generally terrible in terms of the stereotyping, but certainly while there are problems with many tv programs, there are also some very good educational programs and there is a lot more exchange between for example America and the Muslim world of students, of faculty, of business people, so there is progress. At the same time however among a minority for both political and religious reasons, that is among the minority of sort of right wing political and religious types, there has been an increase of what we call Islamaphobia because of their religion or culture and this can lead to hate crimes, so this is something that is growing in America as well as in Europe.
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Professor Esposito: Adding to my last answer...we also are seeing an increase in threats to the civil liberties of Muslims in the West.
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Erin: That’s wraps today’s chat about What Muslims Really Think. Our thanks to John Esposito, a leading expert on the Muslim world, and to you for joining us. We hope you can come back tomorrow for a Special Edition chat on the global economy – Thursday, March 20th at 1900 utc. Jeffrey Sachs is a leading international economist calling for new strategies to fight the environmental degradation, rapid population growth, and extreme poverty that he says threaten global prosperity. That’s tomorrow, Thursday, March 20th at 1900 utc right here on voanews.com See you then!
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