Media coverage relevant to Muslim-West relations.
North America | Europe | Middle East
North American Press
American Muslims relieved, hopeful at Obama's election. USA Today, Nicole Neroulias (7 November 2008).
"But Jews, Muslims, and America's other minorities seem to have found a unifying figure in Obama, [Ahmed Younis, analyst with the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies] said. His presidency could be 'a magic spear in the heart of clash of civilizations theory,' especially considering his own experiences struggling with prejudice and different cultural viewpoints."
Muslims drawn to Obama: Embracing message, rejecting smears. Chicago Tribune, Manya A. Brachear (7 November 2008).
"Ahmed Younis of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies pointed out that the white, male majority did not vote for the winner. Instead, Obama was elected by a coalition of Americans as diverse as the nation itself but who share a set of common ideals."
Among Young Muslims, Mixed Emotions on Obama. The New York Times, Paul Vitello (6 November 2008).
"The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies... recently found overwhelming support for Mr. Obama among the country's estimated 2 million Muslim voters; and scholars... [have] described the sense of resignation many Muslims felt at how the pejorative use of the word 'Muslim' went unchallenged during most of the campaign."
Smears against Obama energized Muslim voters: experts. Reuters, Michael Conlon (6 November 2008).
"False rumors that Barack Obama was secretly a Muslim or had ties to Islamic extremism angered Muslim-Americans, who overwhelming supported him in Tuesday's presidential election, experts said on Thursday."
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. The Christian Century, Brian D. McLaren (7 October 2008).
"If Americans who aim to follow the way of Jesus are indeed interested in removing the planks from our own outlook before surgically removing the splinters from the perspectives of others, Who Speaks for Islam? provides a mirror to help us compare our crude stereotypes and rough-cut assumptions with a much more nuanced and surprising reality."
Diverse Voices: Taking the Initiative to Better Muslim Characters. TV Week, Dinah Eng (14 September 2008).
"Dalia Mogahed, author of 'Who Speaks for Islam?' as well as senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, said research shows people around the world feel that they know Americans through our television programs, just as American beliefs often are shaped by what they see on TV."
Des Moines Audience Defends Muslim Author. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Michael Gillespie (August 2008).
"Dalia Mogahed, co-author of Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, spoke to a remarkably receptive standing-room-only audience at the Des Moines Public Library's Central Library on May 27, at the invitation of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy."
Word on the Street: What Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush get wrong about Muslims. Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Fawaz Gerges (Summer 2008).
"After September 11, 2001 two questions dominated America's public debate: Why do Muslims hate us so much? And where are the Muslim moderates?"
The Islam you don't hear about. USA Today, Stephen Prothero (23 June 2008).
"The Muslims I encountered scoff at any notion of a 'clash of civilizations' between Islam and the West. Any clash of civilizations that exists, they tell me, is between fundamentalists of all faiths and their liberal and moderate opponents."
Could polls point the way to peace? Toronto Star, Andrew Chung (15 June 2008).
"Gallup's data suggests that extremists are not the uneducated, madrassa-indoctrinated lot Westerners might think they are."
What do a billion Muslims really think? The Christian Science Monitor, Jane Lampman (16 May 2008).
"Since the momentous events of Sept. 11, 2001, countless news stories, TV commentaries, and books have speculated on the causes of terrorism, the attitudes of Muslims, and a purported clash of civilizations between Islamic societies and the West. What has not been available is any reliable measure of the viewpoints of ordinary Muslims... That is no longer the case."
What do Muslims around the world believe? The Boston Globe, Charles A. Radin (14 May 2008).
"Esposito's explanation of the difference between sharia and Islamic law is illuminating and potentially useful to would-be bridge builders from other religions."
Who Speaks for Islam? offers insights for Westerners. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Karen Long (16 March 2008).
"The breadth of Who Speaks for Islam? is its finest quality. The voices of a Kenyan student, an Algerian activist, a beauty contestant in Afghanistan and a Jakartan shopkeeper are here."
What Muslims think: New book examines what the more than 1 billion Muslims think about gender, race and terrorism. U.S. News and World Report, Alex Kingsbury (14 March 2008).
"Muslims give us a long list of things they admire about the West, yet when asked what we can do to improve things, they want us to respect them and stop looking down on them. Our public diplomacy needs to move from selling America to affirming other cultures for what they are."
Book review. ForeWord Magazine, David Priess (March/April 2008).
"The discussion of the data focuses on topics of wide interest to Western governments and publics alike: political beliefs, radicalization, religious views, and cultural matters (such as the role of women in society)."
European Press
Just what do they dislike, and why? The Economist (17 April 2008).
"If you can prove that 'they hate us whatever we do,' all efforts to assuage Islamic sentiment are futile. But the opposite case can also be made. It is into this minefield that Gallup... has entered."
Muslimenes sanne askikt [Muslim's true face]. Ny Tid (11 April 2008).
"The book is about the silent majority of Muslims who you do not hear very much about in today's media."
The fight that demands something other than a war. The Financial Times, Philip Stevens (10 April 2008).
"For one thing, the study finds, Muslims do not see the west as a single entity let alone a single enemy."
Research explores what 1.3 billion Muslims think. Reuters, Luke Baker (7 April 2008).
"When the authors looked at where opinions of the West were lowest in the Muslim world, it tended to correlate with where conflicts were going on -- nations bordering Iraq or Israel and the Palestinian territories were more negative in their views."
Analysis: Study of Muslim beliefs should be lesson for policy makers. The Earth Times (27 February 2008).
"US President George W Bush has often said that radicals in the Islamic world who commit terrorist attacks are motivated by hatred for freedom and democracy, but a new poll suggests exactly the opposite may be true."
Major survey challenges Western perceptions of Islam. AFP (26 February 2008).
"The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism. It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks."
Islam-West rift widens, poll says. BBC News (21 January 2008).
"Most people in Muslim countries and the West believe divisions between them are worsening, a Gallup poll for the World Economic Forum suggests. The poll also suggested that most Europeans thought more interaction with Islam would be a threat -- though most Americans disagreed."
Muslims, West see divisions deepening: survey. Reuters (21 January 2008).
"While two thirds of people in Muslim countries said Muslims respect the West, almost the same number felt the West did not respect them. Many Western respondents said they did not believe either side respected the other."
Middle Eastern Press
Who speaks for Islam: Part V. Gulf News (3 October 2008).
"While Gallup data indicate that faith is not the distinguishing factor primarily responsible for extremism, Islam does remain a significant source of religious, historical, national, and cultural identity. Thus, Islam remains in the spotlight."
Who speaks for Islam: Part IV. Gulf News (25 September 2008).
"Because anti-women views are often believed to result from religious sentiment, important questions that must be asked are: Does religiosity among Muslim men correlate with less egalitarian views toward women? Is there merit to the arguments of those who say that women's lagging status in much of the Muslim world is attributable to Islamic principles?"
Who speaks for Islam: Part III. Gulf News (19 September 2008).
"As we cope with savage actions in a world that seems ever more dangerous and out of control, we are inundated with analysis from terrorism experts and pundits who blame the religion of Islam for global terrorism. At the same time, terrorist groups such as Al Qaida beam messages throughout the world that demonise the West as the enemy of Islam and hold it responsible for all the ills of the Muslim world."
Who speaks for Islam: Part II. Gulf News (12 September 2008).
"While Sharia is widely depicted as a rigid and oppressive legal system, Muslim women tend to have a more nuanced view of Sharia, viewing it as compatible with their aspirations for empowerment."
Who speaks for Islam: Part I. Gulf News (5 September 2008).
"While many people commonly speak of Islam and Muslims in broad, all-encompassing terms, there are many interpretations of Islam and many different Muslims."
Dialogue and its impact on peaceful coexistence. Saudi Gazette, James Kidner (21 July 2008).
"What Gallup have done, in their words, is to 'democratize the debate' - they help us to go beyond the bald absolutes of the Media, and discover a more generous, more nuanced, more encouraging world behind the headlines."
Who speaks for Islam? Today's Zaman, Ahmet Kurucan (29 June 2008).
"Above all, it contains answers given by Muslims all over the world. The publication of such answers is a new thing... I believe it is a must for Turkish readers to lay their hands on this book."
Speaking for Islam. The Jakarta Post (3 April 2008).
"The latest poll by the Gallup agency… should become a valuable reference to those hearing different voices showing a violent face of Islam. The researchers at Gallup remind us that it is the voice of a billion Muslims we should listen to."
What Muslims think. Arab News, Aijaz Zaka Syed (15 April 2008).
"The poll and the book offer a much-needed reality check on the relations between the West and Muslim world. Some of the findings are genuinely surprising even for someone like me who has been obsessed with the issue."
Muslim women seek freedom "within their cultural context." GulfNews.com, Barbara Bibbo (12 April 2008).
"The recent findings of a Gallup poll on Muslim public opinion may disappoint both sides and prove how these claims are based on widespread misconceptions on Muslim women's ideas, ambitions and homes for the future."
Report issued on Muslim-West relations. The Arab American News.com (11 April 2008).
"The purpose of the roundtable… was to debate and discuss the issues surrounding Islam and American politics, with a particular focus on the upcoming U.S. presidential elections."
View: It will help understand policy flaws. The Times of India (10 April 2008)
"Surveys like this one help to dispel many misconceptions about the Muslim world. They show that many conflicts arise out of misunderstandings and are actually avoidable. The Gallup survey helps in understanding how fallacies propagated by vested political and other interests on both sides of the Muslim-West divide fuelled distrust and hostility."
Research explores what 1.3 billion Muslims think. Reuters Africa, Luke Baker (10 April 2008)
"In the years since the September 11 attacks on the United States, much has been said about the Muslim world, but little, it is argued, has been gathered on what Muslims truly think of the West. Now Gallup, the global polling group, has conducted research... to come up with what it is calling the first comprehensive survey of Muslim world opinion."
Queen visits Gallup's Centre for Muslim Studies, reviews findings of latest poll. The Jordan Times (4 March 2008).
"Many of Queen Rania's programmes have focused on appreciating various perspectives in the world, finding common ground and bridging the cultural divide between East and West. Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the centre, and Ahmed Younis, a senior analyst at the centre, explained the polling process and shared the highlights of their findings, many of which fly in the face of conventional wisdom."
What Arabs want from the West is respect. The Daily Star - Lebanon, Rami G. Khouri (20 February 2008).
"A fascinating new global poll by the Gallup organization... clearly reaffirmed something that those of us who live in Muslim-majority societies have long recognized as a prevailing reality: Muslims most resent the West's 'disrespect of Islam' and are critical of many American policies, not American values."
