World Economic Forum Report Ranks Islam and West Relations
Source: World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Georgetown University, launched today the Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue. This first of its kind report is a systematic and thorough overview of how Muslim and Western societies perceive and relate to each other at the political, social, economic and cultural levels.

The report which is the result of in-depth research carried out by leading academics and experts in the field, finds that majorities in populations around the world believe that violent conflict between the West and the Muslim world can be avoided, but they also share a great deal of pessimism about the state of the relationship.

Among both Muslim majority and non-Muslim majority nations, the proportion who say they think the “other side” is committed to better relations rarely rises above a minority of 30%. Notwithstanding the prevalent sense of scepticism, majorities of residents in nations around the world say that better interaction between the Muslim and Western worlds is important to them.
…
The report features a Gallup Muslim-West Dialogue Index, which is a ranking of countries based on citizens’ degree of optimism about the state of relations between the West and the Muslim world. The Report also presents an analysis of the portrayal of Islam and the West in newspapers and television across 24 countries by Media Tenor; and a survey by Georgetown University of international, national and local efforts to improve Muslim-West relations.

An important finding of the report is the emergence of citizenship and integration as the second most powerful shaper of the state of dialogue after international politics.

+ Full Report (PDF; 2 MB)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm and is filed under International Relations, Religion and spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.