DATE=March 18, 2002

TYPE=Dateline

NUMBER=7-36068

TITLE=Muslim Opinion Poll

BYLINE=Judith Latham

TELEPHONE=202-619-3464

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Neal Lavon

CONTENT=

INTRO: In the first six months after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, many Americans asked the question, "Why do they hate us?" A recent opinion poll taken in nine Muslim countries [2/28/02] suggests some reasons. But are the results of the poll valid? In this Dateline report, Judith Latham explores the results of the poll and its implications for the United States.

JL: The results of a poll by the Gallup organization and published by the national newspaper USA Today, surprised many Americans. For example, the poll reports that most Muslims do not believe that Arabs carried out the September 11 attacks on America. In addition, there is widespread dislike of the United States in general and of President Bush in particular. And people in Muslim countries largely disapprove of the campaign in Afghanistan.

The Gallup organization conducted interviews during December and January with nearly 10,000 people in nine Muslim countries: Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Senior analyst Harold Feinberg of the Statistical Assessment Service, a non-partisan research organization that examines polls and surveys, explains it's "impossible to say" how reliable the poll actually is because the results from the different countries were statistically "unadjusted."

TAPE: CUT #1: FEINBERG Q&A [FM LATHAM]

"Basically, when you do a poll, you need to statistically adjust the results to reflect the population that you are surveying. In this case, we don't have a lot of good data on the populations of these countries anyway, so there's no reliable way to adjust the data. So, it's 'unadjusted.' So, we don't really know how representative the results are for the people in those countries. Given the anecdotal evidence we have, the results that came up seem plausible. But there is no way to confirm them one way or the other."

JL: Mr. Feinberg adds that the Gallup poll, and a companion USA Today poll of American attitudes towards Muslim nations, did not take into account the differences in how opinion is formed in the United States and in much of the Muslim world.

TAPE: CUT #2: FEINBERG Q&A [FM LATHAM]

"In our country we have a free press, and 'facts' are reasonable easy to come by. There are numerous sources where you can get reliable information. That's just not the case in a lot of the Muslim world and in a lot of Arab countries. They're living under dictatorships that do not allow a free press. What press they do have is government-run and government-sponsored. It's generally presumed that the U-S government controls the U-S media. They don't know any different. In their own experience, the press is the government."

JL: Harold Feinberg of the Statistical Assessment Service says it's also difficult to know how "truthful" the responses were, given that they may have reflected what repressive governments wanted their citizens to say. According to the poll of Muslim countries, only nine percent of Pakistanis had a favorable view of the United States. But Pakistani anthropologist and writer Akbar Ahmad, chair of the Islamic studies department at The American University, says he was not at all surprised by those results.

TAPE: CUT #3: AKBAR AHMAD Q&A [FM LATHAM] 0:37

"[BEGIN OPT] Because in a book I wrote called Discovering Islam, which was published in the late 1980's, I had already predicted something like this would happen. [END OPT] Many of the things I saw as positive in America, such as the open public debate about major issues, the open democracy, the welcome to immigrants, a pluralistic society, and the things that made America so great, were not really communicated to the Muslim world. The image of America was very negative and was based on Hollywood films or videos. There was a 'disconnect' between the reality here and the images abroad."

JL: According to the Gallup poll, the least positive view of the United States was held by Pakistanis. Akbar Ahmad suggests that may be due to changes within Pakistan itself.

TAPE: CUT #4: AKBAR AHMAD Q&A [FM LATHAM] 1:01

"[BEGIN OPT] That's a very interesting question because remember that for half of its life, Pakistan has been firmly in the American camp. During the Cold War, it considered America as its ally. I think what we're seeing is a change in the majority population of Pakistan. We are seeing the trauma of the Afghanistan war. We are also seeing Pakistanis express their dissatisfaction with the political system that exists at the moment. [END OPT] In an indirect way, it's a comment on the political situation in Pakistan. Pakistanis see America as having a huge influence in Pakistan's political affairs. I would say that people who are religious would say that America symbolizes some of the negative aspects of modernity. But, for a lot of people, there is affection for America. There are hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis living in America, and the green card is a great dream for many Pakistanis."

JL: One of polls' findings that surprised Americans was the view that Arabs were not responsible for the terrorist strikes on September 11. In Pakistan in particular, which is not 'Arab,' there was a perception that Saudis and Egyptians did not carry out the attacks. Akbar Ahmad says that insecurities in the Muslim world may lead to such a conclusion.

TAPE: CUT #5: AKBAR AHMAD Q&A [FM LATHAM] 0:40

"First of all, there is a general feeling in the Muslim world that what happens locally or internationally is the result of a conspiracy theory. Rightly or wrongly, things happen because people are conspiring against them. This is also an aspect of their sense of powerlessness, their sense of impotence. They thought that something that had such a negative impact on the Muslim world could not have been done by Muslims. They were victims of their own sense of misunderstanding or even paranoia in rejecting what are 'hard' facts and incontrovertible facts."

JL: [BEGIN OPT] Media stereotypes in both the Arab and Western worlds share some responsibility, according to Akbar Ahmad, for the attitudes described in the polls.

TAPE: CUT #6: AKBAR AHMAD Q&A [FM LATHAM] 0:21

"A lot of media in the West depict Muslims in a negative way, provide images, which are then picked-up in the Muslim world in Pakistan for instance and exaggerated. When you're talking about the vast majority of allied nations actively disliking America, we have a problem. We need to be asking, Why has this happened and what are we to do about it?" [END OPT]

JL: To many analysts, the driving force behind Muslim distrust of America is its support for Israel over the Palestinians in their Middle East dispute. But Ahmad Akbar says the political and military might of the United States in the post-Cold War world may play more of a role.

TAPE: CUT #7: AKBAR AHMAD Q&A [FM LATHAM] 0:29

"It is an important factor. But I believe it is not the only factor. Just look at the map. America is in Afghanistan, in Georgia for the Chechens, and in The Philippines. There is talk of going into Iraq. Iran is now called the 'axis of evil.' So it really is a large part of the Muslim world that is in turmoil. It's very important for America to think about how to repair the damage and keep its allies as allies."

JL: Professor Akbar Ahmad of The American University in Washington. Yvonne Haddad, professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, says her own research corroborates the results of the Gallop poll.

TAPE: CUT #8: HADDAD Q&A [FM LATHAM] 0:24

"Despite the assurance by our president that we're not fighting a war on Islam but on terrorism, the Muslim world views it as a war on Islam. They are on the receiving end. There is this overwhelming sense of victim-hood, that they are the victims of Israeli expansionist policies, of American hegemony. Most of what I have read accuses the United States of having a policy that is hypocritical, of having a double standard."

JL: Yvonne Haddad says the United States needs to shift its position in the Middle East to dispel the attitudes noted in the Gallup Poll.

TAPE: CUT #9: HADDAD Q&A [FM LATHAM] 0:49

"Change the policy. Basically they feel we are tilted toward Israel. We say, 'Arafat must do more.' And that is infuriating to people. [BEGIN OPT] By watching American television, they notice that it is only when Israelis are killed, we show them being taken to the hospital. They're treated as human beings, whereas the Palestinians just die. Their bodies are never shown. The women are never seen grieving. And I think people are very angry about that. We do not hit hard on Israel and its discrimination against Christians and Muslims under occupation. Therefore, they see us a maintaining a double standard. It fits into a 100-year perception of victimization by Western colonial powers." [END OPT]

JL: Arab-American professor Yvonne Haddad of the Georgetown University Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Professor Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, President of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, a Muslim "think tank" in the Washington area, says there are both psychological and political explanations for why so many Muslims around the world doubt that Arabs were responsible for the airline hijackings on September 11.

TAPE: CUT #10: IMAD AD-DEAN HADDAD [FM LATHAM] 0:39

"There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of the hijackers were of Arab origin. The reason why I think the people in the poll do not accept that is that they are so skeptical of the reliability of information both from the American government and especially from the American media. They give it almost no credence whatsoever and therefore allow their own understandable prejudice to refuse to believe that their fellow Arabs could have done such a thing. [BEGIN OPT] They give that prejudice greater weight than the evidence that led to the conclusion. They have been so used to seeing stories slanted, information suppressed, that they give no credibility to what they hear at all."

JL: While Professor Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad thinks U-S foreign policy as perceived in the Middle East is the strongest factor in Arab perceptions, he points to other, more surprising influences.

TAPE: CUT #11, IMAD AD-DEAN AHMAD [FM LATHAM] 0:52

"I think foreign policy is the number one factor by an order of magnitude of ten. Other factors? There may be elements of jealousy. There may be misperceptions of America partly due to America's entertainment industry. Having lived in America all my life, I know that America bears little resemblance to what people see in the movies violence and loose sexual mores." [END OPT]

JL: Professor Amad-ad-Dean Ahmad believes the number one issue on the minds of people in the Middle East is Palestine and how America defines the issue. More even-handedness, he notes, might lead to a greater appreciation And he recommends using more Muslim-Americans as "bridge-builders" and ambassadors of good will."

I'm Judith Latham.