MANAMA, Bahrain — The role of religion in public, personal and political life in the Arab world has become a common issue of discussion at gatherings that look at trends in the Middle East. Unfortunately, though, the subject is usually discussed with such intense passion and ideological bias that useful analysis is hard to achieve.
That is why the discussion on religion in business, education and politics in the region that took place a few days ago at the Arab Business Council annual meeting here in Bahrain was so useful and important. Instead of heated argument, a tempered, probing discussion of the issue took place, based on empirical data from a new poll of six Arab countries by the leading American pollsters Zogby International, headed by the respected John Zogby. The poll, based on face-to-face interviews in Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during October, asked citizens and residents for their views on education, business and the importance of Shari’a (traditional Islamic) law.
Three important overall results struck me, and many others here, as significant, suggesting that the issue of religion in public life is more nuanced and less frightening than it is often made out to be by many people both in the Middle East and abroad. The three are that: Arabs and Muslims in this region hold a very wide range of views on religion’s role in their lives and do not share monolithic perspectives; religion is an important part of people’s identities and therefore should apply to business and governance in a manner that raises the quality of life; and, people should continue to interpret religious law and its everyday applications.
The first point has always been clear to citizens and residents in the Middle East, but has been heavily obfuscated or ignored by a growing Western tendency to paint Arabs, Islam and Muslims in a single color. The poll reconfirmed yet again that Arabs hold a very wide range of views on the role of religion in their public lives, reflecting, for example, the same sort of lively debates on abortion, evolution, or prayer in public school that defines American culture. There is no such thing as “an Arab view” on Islamic governance or applying Shari’a law. There are many different and often conflicting views, within countries as well as across the region.
The second point is that Arabs tend to be very comfortable with religion playing a public role in their societies, but they want the religious impact to produce positive results, in terms of good government, honest business and quality education that improves their children’s life prospects.
A majority of respondents, except Lebanon and Jordan, want to apply Islamic Shari’a law to business operations (82 percent in Saudi Arabia, 69 percent in UAE, 58 percent in Morocco and 50 percent in Egypt). In Jordan just 39 percent favor this, and in Lebanon majorities of both the Muslim and Christian populations soundly reject applying Shari’a.
The third and perhaps most significant point is that while a majority of citizens polled said Shari’a law should be applied to businesses, they also believe that further interpretation is needed to allow businesses in the Muslim world to integrate into the global economy. In other words, most Muslims in this region see Islam and the laws derived from it as living, evolving phenomena that are inspired or dictated by the Divine, but that require constant human reinterpretation to best serve temporal needs like education, business and governance.
Majorities or pluralities in every nation said that further interpretation is needed (78 percent in the UAE, 60 percent in Morocco, small majorities in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, and just two-fifths of the populations in Egypt and Jordan).
One important issue that keeps many analysts and politicians busy in the region these days is the prospect of Islamist movements — Hamas, Hizbullah, the Muslim Brotherhood — winning democratic elections and coming to power peacefully. The citizens polled across the Arab world “differed substantially on whether they would trust a popularly elected Islamic government to abide by the rules of a democracy,” the survey analysts concluded.
Asked whether they would trust an elected Islamic government to follow democratic rules, 72 percent of Saudis and 70 percent of UAE residents said yes, while just 36 percent in Lebanon agreed. Skepticism was highest among Christians in Lebanon — just one in five believes an Islamic government would abide by the laws of a democracy. People in Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan are more lukewarm to this idea, which is supported by pluralities ranging from 39 percent to 46 percent.
The survey also documented “a striking split between various Arab states on the quality of their education systems.” Just 15 percent of Egyptians believe their system prepares young people for successful careers in today’s global economy, while 56 percent of Saudis and UAE residents hold this view.
The Arabs polled also had very different outlooks on the influence of religion on education in their states. Majorities in Egypt and Lebanon believe religion holds too little sway on education and preparing youth for the future (although in Lebanon, this is only a majority viewpoint among the Christian portion of the population). A 54 percent majority in the UAE believes religion is too powerful an influence, though in all other polled countries just 30 percent or less shared this view. In Saudi Arabia, 45 percent believe religion’s influence on education is about right and 24 percent think it is too little.
There is much food for thought in these poll results for those who would like to analyze the reality of an Arab-Islamic region that is very differentiated and nuanced in its views on religion and public life, rather than the imagined Arab world where all people think the same.
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.
Copyright ©2005 Rami G. Khouri
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Released: 16 November 2005
Word Count: 963
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