What do one billion Muslims think?
Nov 27th, 2009 | By Sara Reef and Zeeshan Suhail | Category: Islam, Religion
Washington, DC/New York, New York: What do one billion Muslims really think?
Despite widespread media coverage of global terrorism by various self-proclaimed “Islamic” groups from America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, little is known about what the majority of the world’s Muslims really think and feel. What do Muslims have to say about violence and terrorist attacks, democracy, women’s rights and their countries’ relations with the West? What are their values, goals and religious beliefs?
This month, Washington, DC and New York movie audiences were able to learn some answers to this question when they watched Inside Islam, a groundbreaking film based on the 2008 book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, co-authored by Georgetown University professor John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. The film premiered in Washington, DC this summer and has been touring the country since.
The film is based on many years of innovative research. Between 2001 and 2006, Esposito worked with Mogahed at Gallup, a research and public opinion organization, to complete the largest study of Muslim populations worldwide. Their results challenged the conventional wisdom and the inevitability of a “clash of civilizations” even as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continued.
Long before Who Speaks for Islam? was released, Washington’s politicos were crafting policies about a people they barely knew. Indeed, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was correct when he said: “In these fraught days of heightened tension and increasing hostility, few books could be more timely.”
Unity Productions Foundation (UPF) decided to turn the book into a film in 2008, recognizing the importance of the message and the need to take it to an even larger audience. As Alex Kronemer, UPF co-founder and one of the film’s executive producers, pointed out, the message of the book is one that US leaders need to hear: “In order to effectively engage the Muslim world, we have to understand what the Muslim world really wants.”
The initial screening, specifically for an audience of policymakers, took place in August 2009 at the US Department of State. After viewing Inside Islam participants took part in a discussion with Kronemer, who had served at the US Department of State’s Human Rights Desk during the Bill Clinton Administration. The goal of these policy screenings, derived from the Gallup findings, is to help policymakers understand the impact of US foreign policy on Muslim attitudes towards the United States, and to understand that a shift in policies will go a long way towards improving Muslim perceptions of Americans.
The film’s 3 June, Washington, DC, premiere featured former US Secretary of State Dr. Madeleine Albright as keynote speaker. After the screening, Albright said, “When fear takes over, communication stops and suspicion builds. That’s why Inside Islam is such an important film, and why the extensive surveys conducted by the Gallup organization are so worthwhile.”
Since then, the film has been screened at several cities across North America. These events bring together civic and political leaders and interfaith organizations, usually with a Gallup expert and UPF representative on hand to discuss the film and the poll’s findings.
The Gallup poll found, among other things, that when asked what they admire about the West, Muslims frequently mention political liberty and freedom of speech. What audiences might also find surprising is that most Muslims, including 73 per cent of Saudis and 89 percent of Iranians say that women should enjoy equal legal rights with men.
To date, the film has been viewed by thousands of people. It appears that from Toledo to Toronto, from New Orleans to New York, audiences everywhere are yearning to know what a billion Muslims really think, including many leading decision makers. Other organizations have gone so far as to express interest in not only helping to screen the film through their networks but to also assist in the creation of educational materials so that younger audiences can benefit from the film’s thought provoking information.
The film creates an environment where dialogue among civilizations, as former President Muhammad Khatami of Iran put it, becomes inevitable. The film prompts American audiences to reconsider their perceptions of Muslims, who are often also their neighbors. We hope that through movies like Inside Islam, fear and suspicion can stop, and communication can take over.
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* Sara Reef is Project Manager at Intersections International and Zeeshan Suhail is a board member of Americans for Informed Democracy. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 24 November 2009, www.commongroundnews.org
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One thing is certain: “One Billion Muslims” think that there is no god but Allah, and Muhammed is his messenger.
“One Billion Muslims” also think that the Koran is the direct, immutable, unalterable word of Allah as revealed directly from the lips of his messenger, Muhammed.
“One Billion Muslims” also think that Muhammed is “an excellent model of conduct”, as proclaimed by Allah in the Koran.
By extension, “One Billion Muslims” must also think that murder, decapitation, amputation, mutilation, enslavement, human trafficking, kidknapping, rape, sex slavery, paedophile rape, sexual gluttony, looting, thieving, lying, genocide and terrorism are excellent models of conduct, because that is what Muhammed did.
Perhaps …..maybe…..possibly…….this might explain why wherever there is Islam…in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, Europe, North & South America….there is brutality, oppression, submission and obscene violence. What else can explain it??
~ The Infidel Alliance
To Indfel alliance
I always wondered, how can we allow such ignorance? Coming from people acting like animals, talking like animals, writing ignorant things on internet. And you “the infidel alliance†are one of them.
When was the last time you read about Islam or the prophet Mohamed? Did you ever read about how great he was, and if he was still living and heard what was said about him, he would probably forgive such accusation. Because what you are saying is very offending, especially coming from someone like you. All Muslims respect the prophet because he had good manners and was very lovely. And we shouldn’t let any ignorant racist talk about Allah, Islam or the Prophet. Don’t try to be liberalist or a defend human rights, because you are just an islamophobic and bran washed by the American Medias. And as I said previously, an ignorant.
Also another thing, if there is problems in the countries and regions you named it’s certainly not because of Islam. And contrarily those people didn’t understand well Islam.
The period that came just after Islam was a period, for the Muslim world, of prosperity and peace. It’s the British and French colonialism and the American social colonialism that collapsed all this.
Please don’t be ignorant and read or don’t talk!!!
Dear “egyptian canadian”,
I own 2 Korans and have read them. I have also read the Ahadith, the Sira and studied fiqh.I have studied the entire history of Islam, from Muhammeds failed time in Mecca, to his devolution to a sadistic killer in Medina, and the spread of Islam out of Arabia under the saifullah (the sword of Allah). I have read extensively about your evil prince, Muhammed.
My understanding of Islam comes straight from Islam. And here is what I know:
Muhammed was a self proclaimed terrorist who established a terrorist religion and a terrorist culture.
The crowning achievement of Islams ‘holy prophet’ Muhammed is his barbaric legacy: the 1,400 ISLAMIC WORLD WAR that rages on every continent except Antarctica, against everyone and everything “non-Islamicâ€.
Let’s look at the facts:
Islam against:
- the Catholics in the Philippines (routine slaughter & beheadings)
- the Christians in Indonesia (routine slaughter & beheadings)
- Australian tourists in Bali (blown up…twice)
- the Buddhists in Thailand (routine slaughter & beheadings)
- the Hindus & Sikhs in India (hundreds of years battling the Islamic Jihad)
- the Jews in Mumbai (slaughtered)
- the Zoroastrians & Baha’i in Iran (virtually exterminated)
- Islamic converts to Christianity in Afghanistan (death fatwa)
- ancient Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan (blown up)
- the Chaldean Christians in Iraq (routine persecution, slaughter & church burnings)
- the Jews in Israel (routine attacks against civilians, threat of 2nd genocide)
- the Jews in Yemen (nearly exterminated)
- S. Korean & German tourists in Yemen (blown up)
- the Coptic Christians in Egypt (routine persecution, slaughter & church attacks)
- the Christians & animists in Sudan (genocide)
- the Christians in Kenya (constant Jihadist threat from Obama’s homies)
- the Christians in Nigeria (routine Jihadist attacks)
- U.S. embassies in Tanzania & Kenya (blown up)
- the athiests in Europe (the prime target)
- the native French in Paris (torched car terrorism)
- Jews in Paris (read the grisly story of Ilan Halimi, a Jewish shop clerk who was kidnapped, tortured and killed in 2006)
- the native Swedes in Malmo (Islamic rape brigades)
- the native Dutch in Amsterdam (routinely terrorized)
- Dutch politicians (Geert Wilders & Ayyan Hirsi Ali – death fatwa)
- Dutch cinematographers (Theo vanGogh savagely murdered by an Islamist in broad daylight)
- Dutch cartoonists (Kurt Westergaard – death fatwa)
- Dutch newspaper editors (Flemming Rose, Jyllands-Posten’s culture editor – death fatwa)
- Train commuters in Spain (blown up)
- Tube commuters in London (blown up)
- Airports in Scotland (blown up)
- Jews in Argentina (blown up)
- Jews in Caracas (blown up)
- Twin Tower office workers in N.Y. (blown up – twice)
- Defense workers in the Pentagon (blown up – airliner jihad)
- Army/Navy military recruiters in Little Rock (gunned down by an Islamist)
- Soldiers in F.t Hood Texas (gunned down by an Islamist)
- Pedestrians at the U. of N. Carolina (run down with an SUV by Islamist)
- Journalists like Daniel Pearl (savagely decapitated by Islamists)
- Nick Berg, Kim Sung-il, Piotr Stanczyk, Jack Hensley, Eugene Armstrong, Paul Johnson (savagely decapitated by Islamists)
- Jewish centers in Seattle (slaughtered by Islamist Jihadist)
- Jewish centers in Toronto (slaughtered by Islamist Jihadist)
And on, and on, and on……….
The FACTS reveal it is Islam against everyone, everything, everywhere that is not Islamic.
The FACTS reveal it is Dar al-Islam against Dar al-Harb.
The FACTS reveal it is THE ISLAMIC WORLD WAR – mandated by Allah & Muhammed in the Koran & Ahadith: Bukhari (8:387) – Allah’s Apostle Muhammed said, “I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah
THE ISLAMIC WORLD WAR – Muhammed’s legacy – it’s real.
~ The Infidel Alliance
P.S. – I hope you will search your soul, examine your conscience, open your mind to the truth, face the terrible reality of Islam, embrace love and reject Muhammeds evil.