MB Civic

By John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed | November 29, 2006 | Foreign Policy

This article, from the journal Foreign Policy, is creating a huge buzz among foreign policy educators and diplomats. It summarizes the findings of a fascinating Gallup Survey of radical Islam. There were over 9000 participants in nine Muslim countries. The quality of the data is very high, and the writing is very clear.

The Principal Investigator and first author is John L. Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs at America’s top diplomacy school, Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Dalia Mogahed is the Executive Director of Muslim Studies for the Gallup Organization. They are working on a forthcoming book, “Can You Hear Me?: Listening to the Voices of a Billion Muslims”, to be published in September 2007.

The big surprise is that Muslim radicals have much in common with Muslim moderates. In their words:

“…Radicals are more likely to feel that the West threatens and attempts to control their way of life. Moderates, on the other hand, are more eager to build ties with the West through economic development. This divergence of responses offers policymakers a key opportunity to develop strategies to prevent the moderate mainstream from sliding away, and to check the persuasive power of those who would do us harm.”

Fascinating stuff…BS

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3637&fpsrc=ealert061127