Once in a while a piece of analytical research comes around that is truly essential reading for anyone interested in exploring why relations are so tense, aggressive, and occasionally violent, between many people in the United States, other Western countries and the Arab-Islamic region.
The report just released by the Gallup company, “Measuring the State of Muslim-West Relations: Assessing the ‘New Beginning,’” is one such study that deserves to be widely read by politicians, journalists, faith leaders and academics throughout the world (it is available for free at www.gallup.com). The survey data from interviews with over 123,000 people in 55 countries between 2006 and 2010 touches on critical core sentiments and issues that need to be better understood if we ever hope to reverse the cycle of violence and mistrust that now plagues so many Arabs, Muslims, Americans and Westerners.
A majority of Muslims feels that most problems with the West can be resolved because they reflect political differences, not religious or cultural fissures. We all need to focus more on political issues and foreign policies, and give less attention to purely religious matters as a means to better relations, because religion is not the problem – policies are the problem.
Tags: islam and the west, politics and religion, religious freedom
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