Years after 9/11 are we any closer to knowing what makes a radical?
In the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, US public officials seemed to
have no idea how many of the 1.3 billion Muslims across the world supported
the bombing. The result was the largest most comprehensive study of its
kind.
Organised by Gallup, taking six years and representing 90% of the world’s
Muslim community, the report Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims
Really Think
<https://uel-mail1.uel.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://email.britac.ac
.uk/_act/link.php?mId=A8834901766795756416866383921%26tId=8361519> , was not
only illuminating but surprising.
On Wednesday 24 March
<https://uel-mail1.uel.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://email.britac.ac
.uk/_act/link.php?mId=A8834901766795756416866383921%26tId=8361520> , co
author Dalia Mogahed, a member of a key advisory council to Barack Obama,
will talk on the findings of this ground breaking research. In her lecture
she will show that conflict between Muslims and the Western world is not, as
often thought, inevitable and in fact has more to do with policies than
principles.
She will illustrate how Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject
attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable, and also reveal what most
Muslims think is the most important thing Westerners can do to improve
relations with their societies.
To conclude, Mogahed will look to the future with a caution, as in the book,
that “until and unless decision makers listen directly to the people and gain
an accurate understanding of this conflict, extremists on all sides will
continue to gain ground.”
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L Eposito
and Dalia Mogahed was published in 2008. It is an important book that
challenges conventional wisdom and sheds unprecedented light on what
motivates Muslims worldwide.
Who Speaks for Islam? is on Wednesday 24 March from 6.00-7.00pm at the Royal
Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5AH. The event is free to the
public and registration is not required. The lecture will be introduced and
chaired by Henry Hogger CMG, Chairman of the Council for British Research in
the Levant and a former British ambassador to Syria, who specialises in
Middle East affairs.
The Lecture is linked to an international symposium on Islamic Studies in
Europe, talking place at the British Academy in conjunction with the Higher
Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), on 23-24 March.
* Dalia Mogahed is Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim
Studies in Washington DC and co-author of the book What a Billion Muslims
Really Think (2008). She leads the collection and analysis of Gallup’s survey
of worldwide Muslim opinion, and directs the MuslimWest Facts Initiative, in
collaboration with the Coexist Foundation, which disseminates the findings of
the Gallup World Poll to key opinion leaders in the Muslim World and the
West.
The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH Tel: 020 7969
5200, Fax: 020 7969 5300, Web: www.britac.ac.uk
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