Thursday, October 31, 2013

What Muslims Really Think (Part I)



By Aiman Reyaz, New Age Islam
October 30, 2013
In 2001, The Gallup Organization began the most extensive public opinion poll ever taken of the Muslim world. Gallup, Inc., is a research-based company which conducts surveys in 160 countries and its site says “and is committed to doing so for the entire century.”1
In 2001, this global performance-management consulting company decided to go on a journey in which they would go door to door and ask the Muslims what they think about issues like polygamy, gender justice, 9/11, Israel-Palestine and a range of other issues.
Muslims come from every country of the world and they speak every language of the world. Only about 15% of Muslims are Arabs and obviously all Arabs are not Muslims. The largest percentage of Muslims actually lives in Asia, especially in South Asia. And a considerable Muslim minority thrives in the West. That is the reason the survey was mostly carried out in Muslim majority countries.
John L Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs or Georgetown University, says that the poll found that what Muslims actually think is against the conventional reality that is presented in the media and the stereotypes prevalent in the Muslim as well as non-Muslim world.
The Clash
The Clash of Civilization theory is based on some assumptions. The first one, probably the most important is the idea that Muslims around the world do not share democratic values; they don’t understand or value freedom of speech, they don’t value gender justice, they look at representative government and think that it leads to chaos and corruption. 
 

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