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Date: November 23, 2005 at 00:16:30
From: Leigh, [ool-18b9649f.dyn.optonline.net]
Subject: Fear Builds Walls... |
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I can't help but wonder if you, and in fact all of the people who post messages on this board against Islam and Muslims, know any Muslims personally. I have to think no because, if you did, then I don't see how you could write the things you do. Like Christians and Jews, Buddhists and agnostics as well as those from all, Muslims come in all shapes and sizes, with varying thoughts on a world of issues, including on Islam itself. The article below, from the Daily Star newspaper of Lebanon, speaks to the differening perceptions of the role of Islam and religion throughout various countries in the Middle East. Of course, you can continue to post messages about your belief that Islam is a corrupt religion founded by the evil prophet Mohammed. More beneficial to all of us though would be to look at the commonalities in all people, and the ways to create peace. As I recently saw written in Bethlehem, on the inside of the 'security wall' separating Israel from the Palestinians, "Fear Builds Walls - Hope Builds Bridges!"
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Arab opinion is not monolithic when it comes to religion
Rami G. Khouri
Beirut - The role of religion in public, personal and political life in the Arab world has become a common issue of discussion at gatherings looking at regional trends. Unfortunately, the subject is usually discussed with such intense passion and ideological bias that useful analysis is hard to achieve.
That is why the discussion on religion in business, education and politics in the region that took place a few days ago at the annual meeting of the Arab Business Council in Bahrain was useful and important. Instead of heated argument, a tempered, probing discussion took place, based on empirical data from a new poll of six Arab countries by the leading pollsters Zogby International. The poll, based on face-to-face interviews in Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) during October, asked citizens and residents for their views on education, business and the importance of Sharia (Islamic) law.
Three important overall results struck me (and many others) as significant, suggesting that the issue of religion in public life is more nuanced and less frightening than it is often made out to be by many people both in the Middle East and beyond. The three are that, first, Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East hold a very wide range of views on religion's role in their lives and do not share monolithic perspectives; second, religion is an important part of people's identities and therefore should apply to business and governance in a manner that raises the quality of life; and third, people should continue to interpret religious law and its everyday applications.
The first point has always been clear to citizens and residents in the Middle East, but has been heavily obfuscated or ignored by a growing Western tendency to paint Arabs, Islam and Muslims in a single color. The poll confirmed yet again that Arabs hold a very wide range of views on the role of religion in their public lives, reflecting, for example, the same sort of lively debates on abortion, evolution or prayer in public school that defines American culture. There is no such thing as "an Arab view" on Islamic governance or applying Sharia law. There are many different and often conflicting views, within countries as well as across the region.
The second point is that Arabs tend to be very comfortable with religion's playing a public role in their societies, but they want the impact to produce positive results, in terms of good government, honest business practices and quality education that improves their children's life prospects.
A majority of respondents, except in Lebanon and Jordan, want to apply Islamic Sharia law to business operations (82 percent in Saudi Arabia, 69 percent in the U.A.E., 58 percent in Morocco and 50 percent in Egypt). In Jordan, just 39 percent favor this, and in Lebanon majorities of both the Muslim and Christian populations soundly reject applying Sharia.
The third and perhaps most significant point is that while a majority of citizens polled said Sharia law should be applied to businesses, they also believe that further interpretation is needed to allow businesses in the Muslim world to integrate into the global economy. In other words, most Muslims see Islam and the laws derived from it as living, evolving phenomena that are inspired or dictated by the divine, but that also require constant human reinterpretation to best serve temporal needs like education, business and governance.
Majorities or pluralities in every nation said that further interpretation of Islamic law is needed (78 percent in the U.A.E., 60 percent in Morocco, small majorities in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, and just two-fifths of the populations in Egypt and Jordan).
One important issue that keeps many analysts and politicians busy in the region these days is the prospect of Islamist movements - Hamas, Hizbullah, the Muslim Brotherhood - winning democratic elections and coming to power peacefully. The citizens polled across the Arab world "differed substantially on whether they would trust a popularly elected Islamic government to abide by the rules of a democracy," the survey analysts concluded.
Asked whether they would trust an elected Islamic government to follow democratic rules, 72 percent of Saudis and 70 percent of U.A.E. residents said yes, while just 36 percent in Lebanon agreed. Skepticism was highest among Christians in Lebanon - just one in five believes an Islamic government would abide by the laws of democracy. People in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan were more lukewarm to this idea, which is supported by pluralities ranging from 39 percent to 46 percent.
The survey also documented "a striking split between various Arab states on the quality of their education systems." Just 15 percent of Egyptians believe their system prepared young people for successful careers in today's global economy, while 56 percent of Saudis and U.A.E. residents held this view.
The Arabs polled also had very different outlooks on the influence of religion on education in their states. Majorities in Egypt and Lebanon believed religion held too little sway on education and preparing youth for the future (although in Lebanon, this was a majority viewpoint only among Christians). A 54 percent majority in the U.A.E. believed religion was too powerful an influence, though in all other polled countries just 30 percent or less shared this view. In Saudi Arabia, 45 percent believed religion's influence on education was about right and 24 percent thought it too little.
There is much food for thought in these poll results for those who would like to analyze the reality of an Arab-Islamic region that is both differentiated and nuanced in its views on religion and public life. The results certainly show the region is not that imagined Arab world where all people are believed to think the same.
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* Rami G. Khouri is senior writer for the Daily Star.
Source: Daily Star, November 16, 2005
Visit the website at www.dailystar.com.lb
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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