Studies and Polling

1. Global Poll Finds that Religion and Culture are Not to Blame for Tensions between Islam and the WestThe global public believes that tensions between Islam and the West arise from conflicts over political power and interests and not from differences of religion and culture, according to a BBC World Service poll across 27 countries.

2. Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly MainstreamThe first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world. A new report from the Pew Research Center provides a rigorous analysis of the demographics, attitudes and experiences of this growing and increasingly important segment of American society.

3. Alliance of Civilizations. International Security and Cosmopolitan Democracy [PDF]Seminar Conclusions by Kristina Kausch and Isaías Barreñada, October 2005.This paper sums up the debates held during the international seminar "Alliance of Civilizations. International Security and Cosmopolitan Democracy", organized by the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales (ICEI) and the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE), on June 6 and 7, 2005, in Madrid, sponsored by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Caja Madrid and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

4. The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each OtherAfter a year marked by riots over cartoon portrayals of Muhammad, a major terrorist attack in London, and continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, most Muslims and Westerners see relations between them as generally bad. Still, the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey also finds solid majorities in France, Great Britain and the U.S. retain overall favorable opinions of Muslims; and while Muslim opinions about the West and its people have worsened over the past year, in most Muslim countries surveyed, support for terrorism has declined.

5. Dynamism In Islamic Activism: Reference Points For Democratization And Human RightsThis report [from WRR: Scientific Council for Government Policy, the Netherlands] investigates the characteristics and dynamics of Islamic activism. It poses the question of whether, and in what respect, the manifestations of this activism since the 1970s offer reference points for democratization and the improvement of human rights. It also investigates which policy perspective on the part of the Netherlands and Europe can reduce the tensions surrounding Islamic activism in the longer term and can support processes of democratization and the improvement of human rights.

6. Negative Perception of Islam IncreasingPoll Numbers in U.S. Higher Than in 2001By Claudia Deane and Darryl FearsWashington Post Staff WritersThursday, March 9, 2006As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.

7. Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics14 July 2005, Pew Global Attitudes ProjectSupport for Terror Wanes Among Muslim PublicsConcerns over Islamic extremism, extensive in the West even before this month's terrorist attacks in London, are shared to a considerable degree by the publics in several predominantly Muslim nations surveyed. Nearly three-quarters of Moroccans and roughly half of those in Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia see Islamic extremism as a threat to their countries. At the same time, most Muslim publics are expressing less support for terrorism than in the past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defense of Islam.

8. Prospects for Inter-Religious UnderstandingWill Views Toward Muslims and Islam Follow Historical Trends? March 22, 2006, A Pew Forum AnalysisAlthough tolerance is an American ideal and freedom of religion is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, American history has often been characterized by inter-religious conflict. Without question, however, much progress has been made in overcoming blatant forms of institutionalized religious discrimination. But historic tensions among American religious groups, not to mention heightened concerns in the post-9/11 world about a clash of civilizations, ensure that the question of inter-religious relations will remain an important issue for the public as well as for religious and political leaders.

9. International Crisis Group: Islamism, Violence and Reform Reacting to the spectacular and violent events of 11 September 2001 and the emergence of al-Qaeda as a defining terrorist threat, many Western observers and policy-makers have tended to lump all forms of Islamism together, brand them as radical and treat them as hostile. However, this monolithic concept is both fundamentally misconceived and misleading in its policy prescriptions. Islamism - or Islamic activism (we treat these terms as synonymous) - has a number of very different streams, only a few of them violent and only a small minority justifying a confrontational response.

10. Zogby InternationalZogby International polling firm has extensive experience in regional and global surveys of popular attitudes and political trends in the US, Latin America, the Middle East, and throughout Asia.

11. Muslims and the West: A Culture War?Guest Commentary by John L. Esposito, Gallup Senior Scientist13 February 2006, Gallup Poll News ServiceOpinion and analysis by John L. Esposito, University Professor at Georgetown University and author of What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam and Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Esposito is a Gallup Senior Scientist and co-author of the forthcoming Can You Hear Me Now: What a Billion Muslims Are Trying to Tell Us.Globalization and an increasingly multicultural and multireligious West test the mettle of cherished democratic values. As the current cartoon controversy underscores, pluralism and tolerance today demand greater mutual understanding and respect from non-Muslims and Muslims alike. Gallup Senior Scientist John L. Esposito offers his insights on the controversy in his commentary.

12. Muslims and the West A Culture War, J. Esposito (PDF file)