By IRNA,
Islamabad : According to a global survey of more than 36,000 statistically selected men and women from 33 countries across the world, global population has become more optimistic than it was a year ago.
However, the rising optimism is not fully shared by men and women of the Muslim faith from both Muslim majority areas and other parts of Europe, North and South America and Asian countries with Muslim minorities.
These findings have emerged from a study carried out by Gallup International in 33 countries across the world: the sample comprised more than 36,000 statistically selected men and women, approximately 9,000 of whom were of Muslim faith.
In response to a question: would you say that new year (2010) will be better, worse or the same as the year just ended (2009), 45% of the global population said it would be better; however the figure was only 34% among the Muslims in the sample.
While overall expectation levels were different among the Muslims and the rest of the world, expectations about economic conditions were roughly the same. 29% of the total global sample expected the new year to be better and 36% expected it to remain the same.
The comparable figure among the world Muslim population was 27% expecting new year to be better and 37% expecting it to remain the same. The balance in both cases expected the new year to get worse or did not respond.
The following comments were made by Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, Chairman of Gilani Research Foundation in Pakistan and a member of Gallup International Board, the apex body which runs its global polls: “considering that many Muslims consider the current global war on terror discriminating against them, the survey findings present a cause of concern.”
The findings of the survey have been released by Gallup International Association headquarters in Zurich.
[Photo by Ashish T]