By IINA
Doha : A majority of people in the Muslim world believes poor religious leadership is to blame for the spread of extremism, a survey commissioned by the Qatar-based Doha Debate said.
Eighty percent of the respondents feel that religious extremism only serves to provide an excuse for the West to interfere in Muslim countries, Among the 960 respondents from across the Gulf region, the Levant and North Africa, involved in the opinion poll, a majority said the primary definition of religious extremism were the intolerance of other religious beliefs and the use or advocacy of violence. “More than 1 in 2 holds poor religious leadership and misguided use of the holy scriptures as responsible for religious extremism,” said the results of the survey, Gulf News reported.
“Religious leaders are held principally responsible for the fight against extremism (34 percent). Significantly, 24 percent of the total believes that ordinary Muslims are responsible more than Muslim governments (19 percent) or the international community (9 percent). This latter view is especially pronounced among the under 30s.” The poll results showed that religious centers such as Al Azhar are the primary source of guidance on religion for some 43 percent of respondents. But some 33 percent, in particular in the Gulf and North Africa, cited the local imam as the main source.
A worrying 46 percent said they have encountered someone who holds extreme religious views, with a higher percentage in the Levant, than in the GCC or North Africa. Also 35 percent believe that Saudi Arabia is the country most at risk from extremism. Of those who believe their own country is threatened by extremism, Iraqis are most fearful (66 percent) followed by Algerians (30 percent). The preferred “action” against religious extremism is highlighting the cause in the media. However 6 in 10 believe violence is legitimate if a Western country interfered in a Muslim country. A further 55 percent would deem it appropriate in the instance of offensive words or behavior against Islam.
But eight in ten respondents though believe that religious extremism only serves to provide an excuse for the West to interfere in Muslim countries and to Arab regimes to clamp down on domestic opposition. The Doha Debates, a televised forum debating issues which affect the Middle East, commissioned the poll to YouGov that fed the questionnaire to its online panel of more than 102,000 respondents. Fieldwork was conducted between March 17 and 23 and a total of 960 respondents completed the 10-minute long interview.
“The commissioning of the poll aims at making the comparison between the Doha Debate audience and a wider Arab public, following the subject matters discussed at the show,” a communication officer for the Doha Debate said. “The survey adds weight to an unusually blunt message from the mainly Muslim participants at the last Doha Debate, filmed on February 3, 2008, who criticized their communities around the world for failing to combat extremism.”