GlobeScan coordinated the fieldwork for this research between November 2006 and January 2007, and the results of the survey were made public in January 2007. These are important per se, but one should also read carefully to find out what is written between the lines.Another aim of the poll was to investigate if there could exist a common ground for cooperation or dialogue between these parties. As an answer to the first question, 52 percent of the respondents believe that the main reason for the tension is diverging interests and the fight for power. Those who think that cultural and religious differences exacerbate antagonisms constitute 29 percent of the respondents. But in the overall analysis, this rate is not taken into consideration as 19 percent of respondents don’t have any idea about this particular issue. We should also emphasize that the poll was realized in countries not directly influenced by “West-Islam” issues, countries in regions like Central or South America. For example, Mexico modifies greatly the average. The poll also suggests that all of the 28,000 respondents exhibit the same thinking when questioned about concepts like power or interest without taking into account eventual perception differences due to religious or cultural differences.
Moreover, 58 percent of the respondents believe that intolerant minorities are those responsible for any trouble. In that case, Western armies in Iraq or in Afghanistan, the Israeli army in Palestine or international forces in Lebanon cease to be a variable. This is to say in brief that the trouble around the world originates from the actions of intolerant and aggressive minorities and if those are eliminated, the unrest will disappear quickly.
The poll also investigates the tension that exists between these sides. But we should affirm that the tension itself is not defined within this survey. There is some talk about violence, but tension and violence are not perceived equally by every society around the globe. Violence for an Iraqi is a suicide attack that kills at least 10 people in a marketplace, but a Canadian might think that a terrorist attack has occurred when the power goes off for one minute.
Most important of all, this poll considers generalizations about the West or Islam are a natural and undisputed reality. The survey suggests that what they call “West” is a monolithic bloc and all Western societies share the same values without any exception. The same consideration is also true for Islam, and all these perceptions tend to create a clear-cut dichotomy between these two parties. The survey also suggests that the concepts West and Islam are comparable while at the same time cultural and religious blocs totally different from one and other.
These kinds of polls probably have good intentions but they also demonstrate how the West, by generalizing itself, needs to do the same for Muslims. Maybe this is the very reason for the tension.
