The Great Divide: How the West, Muslims see each other

After 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 are convinced that relations between them are generally bad these days. Many in the West see Muslims as fanatical, violent, and as lacking tolerance. Meanwhile, Muslims in the Middle East and Asia generally see Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy – as well as violent and fanatical.

A rare point of agreement between Westerners and Muslims is that both believe that
Muslim nations should be more economically prosperous than they are today. But they gauge the problem quite differently. Muslim publics have an aggrieved view of the West – they are much more likely than Americans or Western Europeans to blame Western policies for their own lack of prosperity. For their part, Western publics instead point to government corruption, lack of education and Islamic fundamentalism as the biggest
obstacles to Muslim prosperity.

Nothing highlights the divide between Muslims and the West more clearly than their
responses to the uproar this past winter over cartoon depictions of Muhammad. Most people in Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey blame the controversy on Western nations’ disrespect for the Islamic religion. In contrast, majorities of Americans and Western Europeans who have heard of the controversy say Muslims’ intolerance to different points of view is more to blame.

In one of the survey’s most striking findings, majorities in Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan say that they do not believe groups of Arabs carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The percentage of Turks expressing disbelief that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks has increased from 43% in a 2002 Gallup survey to 59% currently. And this attitude is not limited to Muslims in predominantly Muslim countries – 56% of British Muslims say they do not believe Arabs carried out the terror attacks against the U.S., compared with just 17% who do.

Overall, the Germans and Spanish express much more negative views of both Muslims and Arabs than do the French, British or Americans. Just 36% in Germany, and 29% in Spain, express favorable opinions of Muslims; comparable numbers in the two countries have positive impressions of Arabs (39% and 33%, respectively). In France, Great Britain and the U.S., solid majorities say they have favorable opinions of Muslims, and about the same numbers have positive views of Arabs.

The belief that terrorism is justifiable in the defense of Islam, while less extensive than in previous surveys, still has a sizable number of adherents. Among Nigeria’s Muslim population, for instance, nearly half (46%) feel that suicide bombings can be justified often or sometimes in the defense of Islam. Even among Europe’s Muslim minorities, roughly one-in-seven in France, Spain, and Great Britain feel that suicide bombings against civilian targets can at least sometimes be justified to defend Islam against its enemies.

“I believe the American foreign policy is responsible for the greedy image. They support dictatorships because they want their oil. But on the other hand I do not believe Western people are intolerant. We see them engaged in humanitarian causes. While many Westerners took to the street to protest wars or mistreatment of minorities, people in Egypt or other Muslim places do not do anything.”
--- Mohsen Hamed Hassan, 43, physician, Cairo

“It is difficult to speak about who is guilty. The Western world lacks an understanding of the Muslim world. You can't blame the Muslim world. The regimes are authoritarian. The state structures are very strong. Relations are also poor for another reason. Attempts at integrating Muslims in Germany have been inadequate. There is insufficient support for integration. In some ways, someMuslims remain susceptible to propaganda and fundamentalism. Another reason is what happened in Spain and the UK. The terrorists were home grown. It is very worrying.”

“Yes, it's true that the relationship between Muslims and Westerners is that of mutual mistrust. If you follow the issues, you begin to see that the Westerners are always plotting one discriminatory policy or the other against Muslims. This was the situation even before September 11, but it only became more pronounced after September 11. I am a Muslim, I will defend my faith and practice my faith no matter what, but I also recognize the fact that the next has the right to practice and defend his faith. So, you see, I'm not a fundamentalist even though I love my religion. But when they call all Muslims terrorists and call us fundamentalists or fanatics and then begin to oppress us in the name of fighting terrorism, then you see people reacting in desperate ways including violence. So, these violent people are actually a creation of the West. After all, we all know that America necessitated the creation of al-Qaeda and similar groups.”