serious thoughts?
please share what you think about the article.
what will you do to make the fellow non-Muslims to know about you to change their misconceptions?
Muslim true/false - Los Angeles Times
From the Los Angeles Times
Muslim true/false
What you think you know about them is likely wrong – and that’s
dangerous.
By John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
April 2, 2008
Winning hearts and minds – the Bush administration, foreign policy
wonks, even the U.S. military agree that this is the key to any
victory over global terrorism. Yet our public diplomacy program has
made little progress on improving America’s image. Few seem to
recognize that American ignorance of Islam and Muslims has been the
fatal flaw.
How much do Americans know about the views and beliefs of Muslims
around the world? According to polls, not much. Perhaps not
surprising, the majority of Americans (66%) admit to having at least
some prejudice against Muslims; one in five say they have “a great
deal” of prejudice. Almost half do not believe American Muslims are
“loyal” to this country, and one in four do not want a Muslim as a
neighbor.
Why should such anti-Muslim bias concern us? First, it undermines the
war on terrorism: Situations are misdiagnosed, root causes are
misidentified and bad prescriptions do more harm than good. Second, it
makes our public diplomacy sound like double-talk. U.S. diplomats are
trying to convince Muslims around the world that the United States
respects them and that the war on terrorism is not out to destroy
Islam. Their task is made infinitely more difficult by the frequent
airing of anti-Muslim sentiment on right-wing call-in radio, which is
then heard around the world on the Internet.
Finally, public ignorance weakens our democracy at election time.
Instead of a well-informed citizenry choosing our representatives, we
are rendered vulnerable to manipulative fear tactics. We need look no
further than the political attacks on Barack Obama. Any implied
connection to Islam – attending a Muslim school in Indonesia, the
middle name Hussein – is wielded to suggest that he is unfit for the
presidency and used as fuel for baseless rumors.
Anti-Muslim sentiment fuels misinformation, and is fueled by it –
misinformation that is squarely contradicted by evidence.
Starting in 2001, the research firm Gallup embarked on the largest,
most comprehensive survey of its kind, spending more than six years
polling a population that represented more than 90% of the world’s 1.3
billion Muslims. The results showed plainly that much of the
conventional wisdom about Muslims – views touted by U.S. policymakers
and pundits and accepted by voters – is simply false.
For instance, Gallup found that 72% of Americans disagreed with this
statement: “The majority of those living in Muslim countries thought
men and women should have equal rights.” In fact, majorities in even
some of the most conservative Muslim societies directly refute this
assessment: 73% of Saudis, 89% of Iranians and 94% of Indonesians say
that men and women should have equal legal rights. Majorities of
Muslim men and women in dozens of countries around the world also
believe that a woman should have the right to work outside the home at
any job for which she is qualified (88% in Indonesia, 72% in Egypt and
even 78% in Saudi Arabia), and to vote without interference from
family members (87% in Indonesia, 91% in Egypt, 98% in Lebanon).
What about Muslim sympathy for terrorism? Many charge that Islam
encourages violence more than other faiths, but studies show that
Muslims around the world are at least as likely as Americans to
condemn attacks on civilians. Polls show that 6% of the American
public thinks attacks in which civilians are targets are “completely
justified.” In Saudi Arabia, this figure is 4%. In Lebanon and Iran,
it’s 2%.
Moreover, it’s politics, not piety, that drives the small minority –
just 7% – of Muslims to anti-Americanism at the level of condoning
the attacks of 9/11. Looking across majority-Muslim countries, Gallup
found no statistical difference in self-reported religiosity between
those who sympathized with the attackers and those who did not. When
respondents in select countries were asked in an open-ended question
to explain their views of 9/11, those who condemned it cited
humanitarian as well as religious reasons. For example, 20% of
Kuwaitis who called the attacks “completely unjustified” explained
this position by saying that terrorism was against the teachings of
Islam. A respondent in Indonesia went so far as to quote a direct
verse from the Koran prohibiting killing innocents. On the other hand,
not a single respondent who condoned the attacks used the Koran as
justification. Instead, they relied on political rationalizations,
calling the U.S. an imperialist power or accusing it of wanting to
control the world.
If most Muslims truly reject terrorism, why does it continue to
flourish in Muslim lands? What these results indicate is that
terrorism is much like other violent crime. Violent crimes occur
throughout U.S. cities, but that is no indication of Americans’
general acceptance of murder or assault. Likewise, continued terrorist
violence is not proof that Muslims tolerate it. Indeed, they are its
primary victims.
Still, the typical American cannot be blamed for these misperceptions.
Media-content analyses show that the majority of U.S. TV news coverage
of Islam is sharply negative. Americans are bombarded every day with
news stories about Muslims and majority-Muslim countries in which
vocal extremists, not evidence, drive perceptions.
Rather than allow extremists on either side to dictate how we discuss
Islam and the West, we need to listen carefully to the voices of
ordinary people. Our victory in the war on terrorism depends on it.
John L. Esposito is an Islamic studies professor at Georgetown
University. Dalia Mogahed is executive director of the Center for
Muslim Studies at Gallup. They co-wrote “Who Speaks for Islam? What a
Billion Muslims Really Think.”