Who Speaks for Islam?

Filed Under Islam

I recently came across a very interesting book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed. This book is based upon a Gallup’s World Poll in which they “surveyed a sample representing more than 90% of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims” (xi). The book provides great information on what the worldwide Muslim community thinks about politics, radical Islam, gender issues, and the west.

In the first chapter of the book, Esposito and Mogahed introduce the reader to the basic beliefs and practices of Islam. Unfortunately, a few of their statements reveal an apologetic bias. For example, they write that “Islam means a strong commitment to God and shares the same Arabic root as the word for peace, or salaam” (7). Actually, Islam means submission (to God). Thus, a Muslim is one who submits to God. A couple of pages later they write, “Jesus’ mother, Mary, is mentioned by name more times in the Quran than in the New Testament” (9). I am not sure exactly what point they were trying to make, but they are clearly trying to make their Christian readers feel more comfortable with Islam. This apologetic bias does call into question how the Gallup’s poll data was presented in the book. Nevertheless, the book is still valuable.

Instead of summarizing the book I just want to list a few of the findings that I found the most interesting:

1. 7% (91 million) of the Muslim world is radicalized (They believe that the 9/11 attacks were “completely” justified) (97).
2. Radicals are not more religious than the general population (98).
3. On average, the radicalized are more educated than moderate Muslims (71), disproving the idea that radicalism comes from the poor and uneducated.
4. The attributes most associated with the U.S. are: ruthless (68%), scientifically and technologically advanced (68%), aggressive (66%), conceited (65%), and morally decadent (64%).

I would recommend this book to those who want to better understand what Muslims believe (just beware of the bias of the authors).

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