Mirror on the wall Zaigham Khan   Do Muslims support terrorism and consider suicide bombers their heroes? Is Islam and modernity incompatible? Are Muslims satisfied with the way women are treated in their societies? Do Muslims really desire democracy and consider it suitable for their countries? How do Muslims look at the West and how does the West look them upon? Anyone interested in understanding Muslim societies and their relationship with the rest of the world will be mortally interested in these questions. Answers are hard to find because large-scale opinion polls are not common in Muslim countries, and rightly so because what matters here is not opinion of the people but the will of the majesties and enlightened leaders. The recently released report of the 2006 survey of Pew Global Attitudes Project helps in understanding the attitudes of Muslim societies and diasporas, as well as attitudes of Westerners towards Muslims. The Washington based project is trying to gauge world opinion on some of the most pressing issues of our times through a series of worldwide public opinion surveys encompassing a broad array of subjects ranging from people's assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. The Pew Global Attitudes Project is co-chaired by former US secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright, a strong critic of the neocons and their foreign policies. Since its inception in 2001, more than 90,000 interviews in 50 countries have been conducted as part of the project. The survey shows that Muslim support for terrorism is on the decline. Muslim majorities everywhere now reject use of violence against civilian targets to defend Islam. In Pakistan, opposition to use of such violence has increased from 38 per cent in 2002 to 69 per cent in 2006. However, the percentage of people supporting suicide bombers and violence against civilians is still significant. In Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, it is 29, 28 and 17 per cent respectively. It can be inferred that the majority of Muslims have become aware of the futility of terrorism as a tool for political change in their own societies and on the global stage. Likewise, support for Osama bin Laden has eroded in several Muslim countries. In Jordan, for example, confidence in bin Laden has plummeted since May 2005. A year ago, 25 per cent of Jordanians said they had a lot of confidence in Osama bin Laden to "do the right thing regarding world affairs", while another 35 per cent said they had some confidence. Today, almost no Jordanians (less than 1 per cent) express a lot of confidence in bin Laden, and 24 per cent say they have some confidence in him. In Pakistan, confidence in bin Laden has also fallen, though not quite as dramatically. In May 2005, a majority of Pakistanis (51 per cent) expressed at least some confidence in bin Laden; that number has declined to 38 per cent in the current survey. It will be interesting to see if this trend has any bearing on the popularity of MMA in NWFP and Balochistan. Journalists have noted a decline in public support for the holy men, but we will know only after elections, which, as our beloved president has promised, will be as free and fair as the last elections. A very interesting finding of the survey, not easy to explain, relates to Muslim denial regarding Arab involvement in 9/11 attacks. Except for French Muslims, Muslims everywhere feel that Arabs did not carry out 9/11 attacks. In Pakistan, only 15 per cent respondents believed that Arabs did carry out these attacks. This response is perhaps a manifestation of the prevalence of conspiracy theories in the Muslim world and their deep-seated suspicions towards Western governments and media. It can be noted here that such outlandish opinions are always common among politically powerless peoples used to palace intrigues and manoeuvring on the hands of powerful individuals. Pakistanis' response to modernity and its relationship with Islam shows prevalence of traditional interpretation of Islam in our society and lack of understanding of modernity by those enjoying monopoly over interpretation of Islam. While Muslims in other places feel that there is no conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society, a large percentage of Pakistanis (47 per cent against 17 per cent) think there is such a conflict. A glimmer of hope lies in the Muslims' response to the way women are treated in their societies. Except for Egypt, people in other Muslim countries included in the survey and Muslim diasporas in the West agree with the Westerners that Muslims are not respectful of women. In Pakistan, a large majority (52 per cent against 22 per cent) feel that Muslims are not respectful towards women. Here, I will be inclined to give credit to the untiring struggle by the civil society organisations and the radical attitude of private television channels in this regard. In a fit of optimism, I will assume that the stage is set for amendments in Hudood and other laws discriminating against women. A good part of the survey deals with Muslims' attitudes to the West and vice versa. The survey shows persistence of negative attitudes towards each other and finds that many in the West see Muslims as fanatical, violent, and as lacking tolerance. Meanwhile, Muslims in the Middle East and Asia generally see Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy -- as well as violent and fanatical. Though Muslims and Westerners agree that relations between them are generally bad, they disagree about who is to blame. Strong majorities in the Muslim world blame the West, while Western publics are more divided. Roughly eight-in-ten Turks (79 per cent) who say relations between Muslims and people in the West are bad say that Westerners are mostly to blame for this. Smaller but still sizable majorities in Indonesia (64 per cent), Jordan (61 per cent), Pakistan (60 per cent) and Egypt (56 per cent) also say Westerners are largely to blame for the poor state of relations. The survey gives a rare insight into the Muslim world, highlighting the contradictions inherent in these unfortunate societies whose opinion does not matter to anyone. Even as sections of the US intelligentsia are trying to grapple the Muslim diversity and understand them better, a good part of the American establishment is not interested in the Muslim opinion and finds it more convenient to support entrenched interests and dictatorships in Muslim countries. The opinion of Muslim masses matters even less in their own lands where dictators of all brands and sizes ride them roughshod. Any wonder that bombs and bullets have become a way to issue political statements. Democratic governance in the Muslim nations is the only way the two worlds could deal with each other without mediation of dictators and work together to build a just, safe and prosperous world. According to the survey, the Muslim public shows an enduring belief in democracy, which contrasts sharply with the scepticism many Westerners express about whether democracy can take root in the Muslim world. Majorities in every Muslim country surveyed say that democracy is not just for the West and can work in their countries. However, there are signs that the sole superpower has had enough of democratic development in the Muslim world. In the past year, religious parties have defeated secular rivals in Iraq, Hamas has captured the government of Palestine, Islamists have performed strongly in Saudi Arabia's polls, and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has won an unprecedented fifth of parliament's seats. Even more remarkable is the success of the nascent Islamist movement in Somalia. American policy makers appear reverting to the cold war policy of supporting enlightened rulers in the Muslim world who can show greater marvels in referendums. These popular rulers play the 'mullahs-are-after-me' card, crushing secular parties and secretly grooming religious opposition, leaving no choice to the West except supporting them. The West is willingly taking this bait, at its own peril and at peril of the whole world. It is after all people, however powerless, poor or illiterate they may be, who matter at the end of the long day. At least the Pew Centre understands this. The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist and development consultant. Email: [email protected]