The saying goes: "what you don't know, won't hurt you." When it comes to America's relations in the world, especially our relationships with Islamic countries, what we don't know could hurt. Ignorance and misinformation is spread daily on the radio, in print, and in conversations. We see it in our emails and on blogs. Often what is being spread is not only wrong, it is derogatory and demeaning to Islam and to Muslims. And, many of what is said and written is being read and listened to around the world. When Islam is spoken of in demeaning terms, the "war on terror" is interpreted as a war on Islam. If our intention is to gain the hearts and minds of the Islamic world, to convince them that we are their friends and not their enemies, then our rhetoric will be important.
This is the issue dealt with in an important op-ed piece that appeared yesterday in the LA Times. Written by John Esposito, one of the most important Islamic scholars in America and a professor at Georgetown University, together with Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of the Center for Muslim Studies for the Gallup organization, it is subtitled: "
What you think you know about them is likely wrong -- and that's dangerous."
Americans by and large have a negative view of Islam and of Muslims as people. But as a nation we know very little about Islam. What we believe generally doesn't fit with reality. Consider this:
Starting in 2001, the research firm Gallup embarked on the largest, most comprehensive survey of its kind, spending more than six years polling a population that represented more than 90% of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims. The results showed plainly that much of the conventional wisdom about Muslims -- views touted by U.S. policymakers and pundits and accepted by voters -- is
simply false.
For instance, it is only a minority of Muslims who embrace violence or wish to due harm to Americans, but you wouldn't know it by what you read and hear in the media. They write:
Still, the typical American cannot be blamed for these misperceptions. Media-content analyses show that the majority of U.S. TV news coverage of Islam is sharply negative. Americans are bombarded every day with news stories about Muslims and majority-Muslim countries in which vocal extremists, not evidence, drive perceptions.
Rather than allow extremists on either side to dictate how we discuss Islam and the West, we need to listen carefully to the voices of ordinary people. Our victory in the war on terrorism depends on it.
It is truly time to start doing some real study. Esposito's works are one place to go.
Reza Aslan's book is another. Let's get informed before real lasting damage is done, and the world really becomes dangerous.
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