“They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”-George W. Bush
According to the survey by the Gallup Poll only 7 percent of those questioned condone terrorist attacks. They do though fear that the West and the United States in particular want to occupy and dominate the Islamic world.
A book resulting from the results of the Gallup poll, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think gives a very up to date view of 97% of the Muslim world. Written by John L. Esposito, a professor of international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University, and Dalia Mogahed, Gallup’s executive director of Muslim studies the book gives a well rounded view of what 1.3 billion Muslims really feel about the West.
Gallup commissioned the poll shortly after President Bust asked in a speech, “Why do they hate us?”
Gallup posed questions that have been on the mind of many since the terrorist attacks of 9/11:
Is Islam to blame for terrorism? Why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists? Where are the moderates?
The answers were a often a reverse of the Western way of thinking.
“One also has to face the fact that policy really does matter, It’s the political grievances that are the real drivers” of radicalization,” said Esposito. In other words, it was not religious beliefs that have driven some Muslims to believe that the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington were justified.
Much of the Muslim world feels that the West treats those of the Islamic faith as inferior. They would rather have respect reaching both ways when it comes to religion and not the double standards that they feel the West exchanges.
That double standard came to light in many of the questions from the survey. One area was asking what did Islamics admire about the West. Those questioned had no trouble coming up with admiration for technology, freedom of speech and the value of hard work. In contrast when the question posed to Americans of what they admired about Muslim societies the answer was generally “Nothing” and “I don’t know.”
Most Muslims detest the use of terrorism. They also fear “occupation/U.S. domination”.
The core of the data shows that both sides feel that the other thinks they are hated. When broken down and looked at from a more individualist view both sides seem to want basically the same. Toleration. Freedom to worship. A aversion to the ways of terrorists.
The flaw of labeling one entire religious group as the enemy is that it alienates the world, putting sides up where they shouldn’t be. With both sides mostly against terrorism it would make since to learn toleration in order to work together instead of pulling the world apart.
