Dated 13th – 19th Dec. 09'
This week’s report consists of 23 surveys. 3 of these are multi-country surveys while the rest are national surveys. The range of issues includes governance, resurgence of Islam, Climate Change/Copenhagen and Palestine.
Since 9/11 levels of religious tolerance, especially towards Islam in the west have severely plummeted. The French ban on headscarves and the recent Swiss ban on minarets are two examples that question the credibility of the ideals of cooperation and co-existence. Thilo Sarrazin, a former Berlin finance senator and current member of the German Central Bank committee made a statement earlier this month demanding a ban on headscarves in Germany. The occident is clearly anxious about the growth of Islam in its midst. In a recent survey, about two third of Germans say that they are concerned about the growth of Islam in their country; one third of them are very concerned. To what extent is this concern propelled by an actual mushrooming of overt religious symbolism all over Europe, or conversely is it an exaggerated effect of the media reports highlighting and hence developing a stereotypical correlation between religion, extremism and terrorism? Is the ‘Eurabia threat’ real or imagined?
On the climate front for several months pollsters have been monitoring the publics’ concern about climate change issues before the dawn of the Copenhagen conference. One may say that a series of surveys by various organizations about this issue show that there has emerged greater awareness about climate change issues across the world. In last week’s surveys, even the Americans who have historically shown reluctance towards any drastic policy shifts have indicated their willingness for President Obama to become a signatory to any concrete development about this issue at Copenhagen. Despite all the publics concerns no real breakthrough could be achieved at the conference. Several polls show that people across the world believe that political leaders should given more importance to public opinion but looking at the Copenhagen outcome it seems that it will still take a lot of time before public aspirations are translated into leader’s decisions.
This week’s report consists of 23 surveys. 3 of these are multi-country surveys while the rest are national surveys. The range of issues includes governance, resurgence of Islam, Climate Change/Copenhagen and Palestine.
Since 9/11 levels of religious tolerance, especially towards Islam in the west have severely plummeted. The French ban on headscarves and the recent Swiss ban on minarets are two examples that question the credibility of the ideals of cooperation and co-existence. Thilo Sarrazin, a former Berlin finance senator and current member of the German Central Bank committee made a statement earlier this month demanding a ban on headscarves in Germany. The occident is clearly anxious about the growth of Islam in its midst. In a recent survey, about two third of Germans say that they are concerned about the growth of Islam in their country; one third of them are very concerned. To what extent is this concern propelled by an actual mushrooming of overt religious symbolism all over Europe, or conversely is it an exaggerated effect of the media reports highlighting and hence developing a stereotypical correlation between religion, extremism and terrorism? Is the ‘Eurabia threat’ real or imagined?
On the climate front for several months pollsters have been monitoring the publics’ concern about climate change issues before the dawn of the Copenhagen conference. One may say that a series of surveys by various organizations about this issue show that there has emerged greater awareness about climate change issues across the world. In last week’s surveys, even the Americans who have historically shown reluctance towards any drastic policy shifts have indicated their willingness for President Obama to become a signatory to any concrete development about this issue at Copenhagen. Despite all the publics concerns no real breakthrough could be achieved at the conference. Several polls show that people across the world believe that political leaders should given more importance to public opinion but looking at the Copenhagen outcome it seems that it will still take a lot of time before public aspirations are translated into leader’s decisions.
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The complete detailed weekly reports of the project can be found on theGilani Research Foundation website.
The complete detailed weekly reports of the project can be found on theGilani Research Foundation website.
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