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Heal Muslim and West divide, urges former Obama advisor
Thursday March 08, 2012 12:24:14 PM,
IINA
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Jeddah: A
former member of American President, Barack Obama’s advisory
council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, has called
for joint efforts to heal the divide between Muslims and the West.
This was the appeal from Dalia Mogahed, who is also executive
director at the Gallup Center for Islamic Studies, in a speech at
Effat University on March 4.
Mogahed recently updated a book she wrote with John L. Esposito
titled “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think”
(Gallup Press, March 2008).
She said the West really wants to understand Muslims, particularly
in light of the Arab Spring.
“We thought it would be a real contribution to the world if we
were to produce sound research and inject this debate with
scientific facts.”
“Saudis will be very interested in this research because they are
concerned about the relationship between Muslim communities and
the United States.”
She also emphasized the role of governments and rulers in
overcoming barriers to Muslim-West relations.
According to her studies, America’s willingness to have mutual
relations with Muslims dropped to 56 percent before 2009. After
Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo, the eagerness for reciprocal
interaction went up to 76 percent.
“When the rhetoric becomes very negative towards Muslims, it
affects public opinion.”
She says the Arab Spring has positively influenced Western public
opinion about Muslims. A total of 83 percent of the American
public said they sympathized with the protesters.
This is the same percentage of the Egyptian people who said that
they supported the protesters.”
“I know people who have read it, who have said that it transformed
the way they see Muslims and Islam, such as the executive
screenwriter for a show called ‘24’, about terrorists, who said
the book ‘blew so many myths out of the water’,” she said.
Effat students appreciated her address.
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