Politics, not culture, at heart of clash between Islam, West

A survey was done by BBC showed that Majority of people thinks that politics is behind the conflict between Islam and the West. The results of the survey show that there is ground that we can build on to bring people to understand & accept each other.
There will always be culture differences as every society has it is own character, but what we shouldn’t accept is to force our values on others or to allow others to force their values on us.
Most important aspect in solving the majority of the current world conflicts is to respect Human been regardless what is his ethnicity or religion, and use one standard of justice no matter who are the parties of the conflict, and I think all of us know the double standards policy used by the West and specially USA regarding the issues that concerns the Arab and Muslim world.


Politics, not culture, at heart of clash between Islam, West — poll



LONDON (AP) — A majority of people surveyed in 27 countries believe that common ground can be found between Islam and the West, rejecting the idea of a clash of civilisations, according to a poll published Monday.
The British Broadcasting Corp. World Service poll of more than 28,000 people found 52 per cent believe tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims are caused by political power and interests, compared with 29 per cent who say religion and culture are root causes.
Most people questioned, including Muslims and non-Muslims, rejected the notion that violent conflict between Islam and the West is inevitable. Although 28 per cent said violence was inevitable, twice as many — 56 per cent — believe "common ground can be found." Since the September 11 attacks in the US, countries around the world have struggled with how to deal with radicalism. The poll's results are hopeful, showing most believe differences between Muslims and Westerners can be worked out, said Steven Kull, director of the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which conducted the survey with pollsters from GlobeScan.
"Most people around the world clearly reject the idea that Islam and the West are caught in an inevitable clash of civilisations," Kull said.
Fifty-eight per cent blame tensions on intolerant minorities — not cultural groups as a whole. But, 26 per cent identified fundamental differences between the cultures as the cause.
In Britain, 77 per cent believe common ground can be found between Muslim and Western cultures, compared with 15 per cent who see violence as inevitable. In the US, 64 per cent believed in common ground but 31 per cent saw conflict as inevitable.
Overall, 52 per cent of the 5,000 Muslims surveyed said common ground was possible, including majorities in Lebanon (68 per cent) and Egypt (54 per cent) as well as pluralities in Turkey (49 per cent) and the United Arab Emirates (47 per cent).
Worldwide, the poll indicated, Muslims are more certain than Christians that tensions derive from political conflict, at 55 per cent compared with 51 per cent.
The belief in common ground increases with education at 46 per cent among those with no formal education to 64 per cent for those with post secondary education.
Pollsters questioned about 1,000 people in each country.
The margin of error for the November 3-January 16 poll ranges from 2.5-4 percentage points depending on the country.