CAIRO: Mohamed Younis is set to pave his own road as the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies’ first ever on-ground analyst. Younis will be the center’s eyes and ears in the Middle East, living in and constantly touring the region.
The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies is a research center dedicated to providing data-driven analysis, advice, and education on the views of Muslim populations around the world.
Younis, a senior analyst at the center, is part of the Muslim-West Facts Project, an ongoing public opinion research study that has been conducted for eight years. It polls 1,000 people in over 140 countries once a year, but in the Middle East specifically the poll is conducted twice a year.
Daily News Egypt sat down with Younis as he weighed in on the center’s role in the region.
Daily News Egypt: What is behind Gallup’s decision to have a full-time representative in the Middle East?
Mohamed Younis: We’re really looking to have a more robust presence in the region to build partnerships with other organizations that do similar work, and to present our data to opinion shapers and government leaders.
One thing that really distinguishes us from other organizations that do public opinion research is that we don’t feel that it’s enough to just measure public opinion, our ultimate goal is to provide analysis that can be useful to policy makers and also opinion shapers. So, it’s not just government; it’s also civil society with regards to whatever issue they’re dealing with.
An upcoming report that we’ll be doing is about prejudice against Muslims in America and we’ve been conducting a very large survey on American opinion on Islam and Muslims and also specifically on prejudice against Muslims and the drivers for somebody saying they have prejudice against Muslims. In addition, what we’re trying to do at Gallup through all of our work is to really break things down within a group of people to understand what drives certain subgroups within that community to reach the same conclusion.
What are your biggest findings at the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies?
Our focus is on understanding the opinion of Muslims as it relates between the West and the Muslim World and also the opinion of the Westerners, in addition to Muslims living as a minority in Western countries. Some of our biggest findings have focused around the issues of terrorism and religiosity; one thing that we found all over the world, whether it’s in the Muslim World and also with Muslims living in the West, is that there is no statistical comparison or correlation between the level of religiosity of an individual and their reaction or perception or response to various questions that we ask about attacks on civilians and acts of terrorism. The things that really do distinguish the people who do support those kinds of acts are their political perceptions or their disagreement with certain foreign policy issues that have to do with the relationship between the West and the Muslim World.
Also, when asked ‘What are the things that the West can do to improve the relationship between the two?’ Muslims all over the world frequently said that it is the need of economic development issues to be addressed and business partnership between Western countries and the Muslim World. Another thing that we found in studying Muslim opinion is that Muslims are not really looking for solutions for their societies to come from outside their societies, they are very intent on solving their social problems using the resources, the talents, the expertise that is within their own community and specifically to rely on youth, specifically young men and women.
The number one thing that Americans said when asked ‘What can the Muslim World do to improve relations with the West?’ is to address extremism and terrorism. For Muslims it’s actually the second most frequent that they’ve mentioned, so there is definitely a correlation [in] the diagnosis of the problem between the two.
And when we ask Muslims globally ‘What do you admire most about the West?’ the number one thing is technology and the second is liberty and democracy.
There is a lot of agreement between Muslims and Westerners about what they admire about the West. There is a lot of agreement on what Muslims feel the Muslim World should do and what Westerners feel the West should do and there is an inverse agreement on what the West should do to improve relationships with the Muslim World. The number one thing Muslims say is to respect Islam and to respect our culture, our faith and traditions, [on the other hand in the West] it is only Americans who feel that the West doesn’t respect the Muslim World and the Muslim World doesn’t respect the West.
The election of Barack Obama has been a turning point in Muslim-Western relations, what do you think of his efforts so far in this issue?
In the latest wave of data post Obama’s elections which measured approval of US leadership in the Arab World [last March], we’ve found that during that period of time is that there was a significant rise in the approval of US leadership all over the Arab World with the exception of very few countries. While there was a substantial percent increase in the approval, the big difference that actually happened was that a lot of people moved from the disapproval category to the ‘I don’t know’ category, and what that represents to us is that people are waiting to see what happens and there is a sort of cautious optimism; they are waiting to see what he is going to do, whether things on the ground are going to change.
Obama’s speech in Cairo really addressed many of the findings we had in our research, suggestions like student exchange programs, the economic development and business partnership issue is something our data strongly supports. Another thing that he talked about was mutual respect between the West and the Muslim World. That is something very frequently mentioned by Muslims; the issue of disrespect specifically of Islam, Islamic culture and as a people and a society was a big concern to Muslims … Obama is trying to speak to Muslims [and] to the American public, stress with them that issue and its importance.
What is the level of interest on the research done by the Gallup Center?
The interest is really high both in the Arab and Western worlds. It is high across many spectrums of government and society. In the US, the FBI is interested in our research as well as the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, and in Europe, [organizations such as] the House of Lords, House of Commons, religious organizations and foreign ministry officials in countries like Germany and France, who are very interested in knowing what Muslims in their country think and feel. Also in the Arab World, we found the same thing, whether it’s non-governmental organizations, foundations or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Egypt . all parts of the government and the civil society. In addition, we are constantly briefing White House staff on our data. Our executive director, Dalia Mogahed, is on Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
When 9/11 happened we were in the process of building our center [and we realized] that we have to do it instantly because after 9/11 everybody in the West and the Muslim World, sort of became an expert on Islam and Arabs. And we heard very loud voices in the public sphere which were great but didn’t really represent what a larger group of people felt. We wanted to go and figure out what do these people really think for themselves and give them a reliable way to express their feelings and aspirations and let people speak for themselves and that’s exactly the mission of our world poll.
