Survey of 9000 Muslims: Moderates more religious than radicals

John Esposito, founding director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, has come out with a very interesting study for Foreign Policy magazine. He surveyed 9000 Muslims in a number of Muslim nations. After looking at a number of objective criteria, found that a "moderate" Muslim and a "radical" are often quite similar to one another in opinions, such as American foreign policy.

Based on a new Gallup World Poll of more than 9,000 interviews in nine Muslim countries, we find that Muslim radicals have more in common with their moderate brethren than is often assumed. If the West wants to reach the extremists, and empower the moderate Muslim majority, it must first recognize who it’s up against.

The study debunks the theory that people are radical because they are poor. Radicals surveyed are somewhat better educated and more wealthy than non-radicals. The study also shows that "moderates" are as (if not more) "religious" than "radicals." This is very important because it demolishes the idea that reformers are irreligious and the militants are the truly pious. Strangely, some of the answers the radicals gave i.e. their support of technology and democracy, make you question radicals' radicalness.

Anyway, this is how the study distinguished between a radical and a moderate:

Respondents who said 9/11 was unjustified (1 or 2 on a 5-point scale, where 1 is totally unjustified and 5 is completely justified) are classified as moderates. Respondents who said 9/11 was justified (4 or 5 on the same scale) are classified as radicals. The data for this poll were obtained during 2005-06 from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Approximately 1,000 in-home interviews were conducted in each country. The sampling mix of urban and rural areas is the statistical equivalent of surveying each nation’s adult population, with a statistical sampling error rate of +/- 3 percent.

The study is at Foreign Policy magazine along with some very nice graphs, and here are the results:

• Religion an important part of your daily life?
  
• Moderates: 92%. Radicals: 91%

• Attended religious service in last 7 days?
  
• Moderates: 59%. Radicals: 56%.

• Primary school or less?
  
• Moderates: 34%. Radicals: 23%.

• Secondary school through university?
  
• Moderates: 38%. Radicals: 44%

• Low or very low income?
• Moderate: 31%. Radicals: 22%.

• Above Average or very high income?
• Moderates: 21%. Radicals: 25%.

• Where do you expect to be in next five years?
• Moderates Worseoff: 7%. Radicals Worseoff: 7%

• Where do you expect to be in next five years?
• Moderates BetterOff: 44%. Radicals Betteroff: 53%.

• Most Admired Aspect of the West?
• Top Response: Western Technology: Moderates 31%, Radicals 30%
• Second highest response: LibertyDemocracy: Moderates: 22%, Radicals: 22%.
  

• What can the West do to improve relations?
• Top Response: Respect Islam. Moderates: 36%. Radicals: 39%.
• Second highest response: Economic Development by Moderates: 22%. Refrain from imposing beliefs by Radicals: 17%.

I think the very simple lesson here is that all those pundits who think that destroying Islam is the solution are ignorant of the statistical fact that they'd be wiping out a vast majority of "moderates" in the process. Which means that to deal with radicalism, you have to deal with the "Moderates."

Thanks to Eteraz for pointing this out, I hope he doesn't mind I plagiarized some of his analysis.