Aspen Ideas Festival

ASPEN, CO -- Scientists, artists, politicians, historians, educators, and business leaders assembled in Aspen, Colo., for a week-long "summer university for the mind" from June 30 to July 6. Participants at the fourth Aspen Ideas Festival engaged in a variety of programs, seminars, and discussions about some of the most important and fascinating ideas of our time.

Executive Director of Gallup's Center for Muslim Studies, Dalia Mogahed, was among a select group of presenters, which included former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, to open the festival with remarks on their "big idea."

"At this unprecedented moment in our history we must harness our unique ability to invent the future," Mogahed said, "Rather than allow a vocal fringe to monopolize the conversation on one of the most important issues [the Muslim-West conflict] facing our country, we must listen to voices of ordinary people and thus let facts -- not fear -- shape our global engagement."

Mogahed stressed this very idea later in the festival as a panelist in a moderated debate about who speaks for Islam. "Muslims are no more likely, in fact in many cases are less likely, than non-Muslims to approve of violence," she said, citing Gallup's surveys of more than 35 predominantly Muslim nations around the world.