Differenciating Radical vs. Moderate Muslims, page 1

This poll attempts to assess the differences between radical and moderate Muslims by asking various questions and comparing answers.

www.foreignpolicy.com
Ask any foreign-policy expert how the West will know it is winning the war on terror, and the likely response will be, “When the Islamic world rejects radicalism.” But just who are Muslim radicals, and what fuels their fury? Every politician has a theory: Radicals are religious fundamentalists. They are poor. They are full of hopelessness and hate. But those theories are wrong.

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.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The poll disproves the theory that ‘they hate us for our freedoms’. Both moderate and radical admired America’s freedom/democracy at the same rate. (22%) The poll also supports the view that radical Muslims tend to be more educated and better off economically than their more moderate counterparts. The poll also suggests that the moderate Muslims would like to see more western style economic development, where as, the radical would not. This dichotomy has existed in the Middle East for quite some time and ‘exploiting’ this difference has made matters worse not better.

There does not seem to be anything earth shatteringly new presented in this poll. It is interesting, however, how they determined a moderate or radical Muslim in the first place. How they responded to the Question of whether 9/11 was justified or not on a scale of 1-5.