WASHINGTON, 27 February — The Gallup Organization yesterday released its first-ever in-depth research on the Islamic world. During the past two months, researchers conducted one-hour telephone interviews with 10,000 Muslims in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan and Morocco.

The resulting data shows that Muslims around the world have considerable objections with the West in general and specifically with the United States.

The Muslims polled expressed strongly unfavorable opinions about the United States and President George Bush. Throughout the survey, the respondents repeatedly described the United States as “ruthless, aggressive, conceited, arrogant, easily provoked and biased.”

Despite this negative perception of Westerners, the majority of the residents polled in Islamic countries did not pardon or forgive the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The vast majority said the events of that tragic day are “morally unjustifiable.”

They believe that Western nations do not respect Arab or Islamic values, do not support Arab causes, and do not exhibit fairness to Arabs, Muslims, and in particular, the situation in Palestine.

Richard Burkholder, Gallup’s Director of International Research, told Arab News the results of the poll were shown yesterday to a group of people at the White House, State Department, Pentagon and Congress. He said everyone “was fascinated by and really interested in it. It was the first time they said they ever saw such specific information based on this data.”

Burkholder said the poll was also well received by the respondents. “The biggest thing — partly because of this feeling of not being adequately understood and valued — was that there was a great interest by the people answering these questions. They felt as though their opinion mattered, and they were delighted to be interviewed.”

“We should have done this 20 years ago; it should not have taken 9/11 to pull this off. I think the results are really worth the effort,” said Burkholder

He said the decision to conduct this poll was the result of the Sept. 11 tragedy.

“Our CEO came to us after Sept. 11, saying there never had been a proper poll on Islamic values and we need to do it. There is no shortage of measurement of consumer attitudes and behavior, as plenty of market research has been done in the region. But for some of these societies there is no tradition of systematically measuring public opinion on sensitive political issues.

Our challenge was to come up with a questionnaire which would ask people questions in a way that was not too culturally sensitive or offensive, but that would also give us a feeling as to how people really felt.”

The Gallup poll found that the images and perceptions of Muslims “are by no means monolithic. Their views of the West are more nuanced than might have been imagined.”

Those polled say they pay close attention to current affairs and did not respond with “blanket condemnations” of the West.

Regarding the lack of respect for Arabs or Islam or their culture, the respondents said the West “pays little attention to their situation, does not attempt to help Islamic countries, and makes few attempts to communicate or to create cross-cultural bridges.”

The Muslims Gallup polled also expressed a deep disrespect for what they consider “undisciplined and immoral lifestyles” of people in Western nations. Their disapproval not only included the sexual and violent content in movies and music, but also their belief that the West embodies an inappropriately relaxed culture, and that the West has “lost respect for its own traditions and religion, which extends to a lack of respect for elders.”

The respondents acknowledged the technological prowess and progress made by the United States and the West, but felt that they have little interest in helping spread this success and know-how to other nations.

Gallup said there is also an overwhelming view that the “decadent, undisciplined and irreligious lifestyle” they believe has accompanied the West’s success overwhelms many of the positives.

Many expressed little interest in visiting or living in the United States. Asked where they would send a son if he had a full scholarship to attend a university anywhere in the world, the United States scored no higher than European counties and well below local countries.

One major irony in the poll, Gallup noted, is the “apparent error in communication” that exists between these Western and Islamic countries.

Gallup said the respondents of the Islamic nations perceive Americans as “immoral and irreligious,” while Gallup says “every study we have in the US documents the degree to which average Americans (not those portrayed on television and in the movies) attend church regularly, profess deeply religious views, and are in many ways conservative in their beliefs and lifestyles.”

They added that surveys throughout the United States also “document the degree to which Americans have empathy for the people around the world and are willing to support foreign policies designed to help them.”

The irony, said Burkholder, “is that Americans regularly poll in as being much more religious than their European counterparts.”

“The criticisms they had about the West are fairly specific. A lot had to do with negative cultural influences, all of which they see in the media, and which they see as reflective of US society, which may or may not, be true.”

“They gave us credit for scientific advancement, for political freedom, but criticized us for being arrogant and conceited,” Burkholder told Arab News.

The poll also revealed that “sizeable minorities” did not accept the official conclusion in the West that Arabs were behind the Sept. 11 attacks. They felt the US, or the Israelis, or at least non-Muslim terrorists committed the attacks. Thus, Gallup said it was not surprising that “these people have such a strongly negative reaction toward the subsequent US response and military action in Afghanistan.”

Significant majorities polled said that the US war in Afghanistan couldn’t be justified at all. Gallup said the majority of those polled understood the US was “engaging in these actions in Afghanistan in reaction to Sept. 11 and in the attempt to shut down Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

But numerous others in the Islamic world say that the main motivation is power grabbing, attempts to take over and control additional peoples or lands, or an effort to corner Afghanistan’s resources, including uranium”.

Regarding the future, those polled said the West should “moderate its attitudes and exhibit less prejudice toward Arabs and Muslims, and that the West should show more respect and should not underestimate the people of the Islamic world”.

They also said the West should increase its level of economic concern and support around the world, should moderate its stance on the Palestinians issue, should attempt more dialogue and cultural interaction, and should make much stronger attempts to understand what Islam is and what it stands for.

Gallup says these views have not been well documented until now. “There has been an enormous amount of speculation about the views of Muslims since Sept. 11, but little substantiation.

The data reviewed in this project underscore the reality of the major perceptual gulf that exists between the West and the countries of Islam.”