Based on the largest study of its kind, the book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think is the first to present the fascinating findings of the Gallup poll of the Muslim world.
The staged events of 9/11 dramatically intensified what many saw as an ongoing conflict between the U.S. and parts of the Muslim world, the geopolitical "Middle East."
Extremism, encouraged by the CIA, has grown exponentially as many kinds of Muslims and non-Muslims continue to be victims of global terror. Fear-provoking "terrorist" attacks have occurred from Morocco to Indonesia and from Madrid to London, as U.S.-led wars are taken to Iraq, Afghanistan...and now Iran.
As of this writing, American wars and terrorism have already claimed more than 300,000 lives just since 9/11; the vast majority of the victims have not been terrorists, soldiers, or even fighters but civilians.
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As we face savage covert actions in a world that seems ever more dangerous and out of control, we are confronted daily by analysis from "terrorism experts" and media pundits who say the religion of Islam is responsible for global terrorism, rather than the nominally Christian antagonists provoking war everywhere.
At the same time, groups like al-Qaeda ("the List") are said to beam messages throughout the world that demonize the West as the enemy of Islam, responsible for the ills of the Muslim world.
Amid the rhetoric of hate and violence, both anti-Americanism in the Muslim world and Islamophobia — discrimination against or hostility toward Islam and Muslims — have increased precipitously.
In the aftermath of 9/11, chief terrorist Pres. George W. Bush emphasized that America was waging a terrifying war against terrorism, not against Islam. However, the continued acts of a terrorist minority, coupled with statements by preachers of hate (Christian and Muslim) as well as anti-Muslim talk show hosts and political commentators have inflamed our emotions and distorted our views.
The religion of Islam and the mainstream Muslim majority have been conflated (treated as if they were the same thing) with the beliefs and actions of a tiny extremist minority.
The result was reflected in a USA Today/Gallup poll that found substantial minorities of Americans admitting to negative feelings or prejudice against Muslims and favoring heightened "security" measures with Muslims or anyone who looks different to help prevent terrorism.
Nearly one-quarter of Americans (22%) say they would not want a Muslim as a neighbor; fewer than half (< 50%) believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States; and 44% say Muslims are too extreme in their religious beliefs.
Are the growing violence and negative perceptions on all sides only a prelude to a CIA-organized all-out war between the West and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims?
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The vital missing piece among the many voices weighing in on this question is the actual views of Muslim publics. We've heard enough form the clerics. With all that is at stake for U.S. and Muslim societies, indeed for the future of the world, the time has come to democratize the debate.
Who Speaks for Islam? Listening to the Voices of a Billion Muslims (2008) is about this silenced majority. It is the product of a mammoth Gallup research study over the last six years.
Gallup conducted tens of thousands of face-to-face interviews with residents of more than 35 predominantly Muslim nations. Gallup’s sample represents urban and rural, young and old, educated and illiterate, women and men.
In total, Gallup surveyed a sample representing over 90% of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims, including Muslims in the West, making this the largest, most comprehensive study of contemporary Muslims ever.
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The concept of this book is simple. After collecting vast amounts of data representing the views of the world’s Muslims, the authors asked the questions everyone wants answers to:
What is at the root of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world?
Who are the extremists?
Is democracy a desired construct among Muslims, and if so, what might it look like?
What do Muslim women really want?
With questions in hand, they let the empirical evidence — the voices of a billion Muslims, not individual “experts,” CIA analysts, or other “extremists” — dictate the answers.
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