Gallup Reports: Muslims and Westerners Say More Interaction Is Better, Obama Helps

The Couch Potato (as opposed to common) Conservatives like Michelle Malkin would have you believe that Muslims "hate" westerners, and particularly Americans, and don't want to interact. But the results of a multi-year research report say otherwise.

According to Islam Online, 59 percent of those surveyed think more, not less, interaction between Westerners and Muslims would be a benefit and not a threat. Those are the findings of a study entitled “Measuring the State of Muslim-West Relations: Assessing the ‘New Beginning’," by John L.Esposito and Dalia Mogahed of the Gallop Organization, and finished and released on November 28, 2010, although its findings are just being widely disseminated. (You can see it with a click here.)

At the center of the study is a poll that surveyed almost 100,000 people in 49 countries. It revealed the following:

1. Muslim views of Muslim-Western relations have changed over time, and for the better. The study reports "In 2009, 61 percent of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) residents - compared with 52 percent of those living in Asia and 49 percent of those in sub - Saharan Africa - said the quality of the interaction between the Muslim and Western worlds is important to them.

2. The degree of change in Middle East and North Africa residents has been greatest since Barack Obama was elected President of The United States. But Obama's approval rating declined in MENA regions in 2010. That's not attributed entirely to policy change, specifically the War in Afghanistan, but an increased awareness of Muslim-Western relations by Muslims after Obama became President of The United States.

3. While the state of Muslim-Western relations is important to Muslims, they don't believe Westerners share the same level of concern.

4. Those who say violent Muslim-Western conflict is unavoidable are more likely to point to religion as the basis for the forecast of increased tensions.

5. Muslim-Western tensions rise more from political than religious conflict. The study reports "Increasingly, a strong focus on the Iraq war and a sense ofurgency in calling for complete U.S. withdrawal is another unique aspect of sentiment in the MENA region." That would force the question on the War in Afghanistan.

On that note, the study focuses on Afghans, explaining the results of eight years of research:

Much has been written about the major security challenges facing Afghanistan.Yet when Gallup asked Afghans an open-ended question about the single-most important problem their families face today, the most frequent responsesgiven in October 2009 were bad economy in their local city or region (21 percent),unemployment (20 percent), high costs of goods/personal financial problems (15 percent),and lack of security (15 percent).

Moreover, a majority of Afghans (55 percent) explain that "things have gotten better" since the fall of the Taliban. But the most interesting statistic is that a fewer Afghans view Muslim-Western interaction as a benefit.

A Complex Report, But Overall, Good News

The study contains far more information than presented here, and is worth a good read when you have the time. As Sara Reef noted in Islam Online "although we have made some progress in improving Muslim-Western relations, there is still a lot of work to be done." But it's also clear that President Obama has been the driving force in America's improved image to the Muslim World.

Moreover, it's clear the Muslim World is more complex and varied than man Americans realize. That's a direct counter to Couch Potato Conservatives like Sarah Palin, who tend to refer to and paint Muslims with one brush, and believing that Muslims can be easily profiled. Or Michelle Malkin, herself Asian, but has no problem casting Muslims as one people and in a distorted and bad light.

Hopefully 2011 will see the emergence of more enlightened conversation on Muslim-Western relations, without the noise from Palin and Malkin.

Stay tuned.