• Workers
  • September 25, 2009
  • 14 minutes read

What 1.3 Billion Muslims Really Think: An Answer to a Recent Gallup Study, Based on the “World Values Survey”

What 1.3 Billion Muslims Really Think: An Answer to a Recent Gallup Study, Based on the “World Values Survey”

Book Description:

This book is based on the quantitative, multivariate analysis of the World Values Survey data from more than 80 countries around the globe on the political and social values of the world’s Muslim communities by international comparison. Global Muslims and also the Muslim communities in Western democracies are value-conservative, family-oriented, but supportive of democracy.This study takes up the idea of “Asabiyya” (”social cohesion”), inherent in classic Arab historiography, first described by Ibn Chaldun (1332 to 1406) in his important work “Muqaddimah”. Is “moderinzation” without “spiritual values” possible in the long run? As a way out from the modernization trap of societies, characterized by large-scale social anomaly, the “active society” of volunteer organization work is the best societal medicine against this kind of value decay, which is so common in countries like France, Brazil, or most of East Central Europe and the former USSR. An active form of religious or non-religious humanism, which provides a noble motivation for such activities as volunteer social services, is a very necessary precondition for social cohesion in the 21st Century.
Table of Contents:

FOREWORD

(Mansoor Moaddel, Eastern Michigan University)

AMITAI ETZIONI ON ISLAM

ANTI-ENLIGHTENMENT PREJUDICE IN A NUTSHELL: THE COVENANT OF THE

ISLAMIC RESISTANCE MOVEMENT – HAMAS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND SYNOPSIS OF THIS STUDY

1. INTRODUCTION : ON THE QUANTITATIVE METHODOLOGY OF THIS WORK

STARTING THE HARD TASK OF GLOBAL CULTURAL COMPARISONS – THE METHODOLOGIES

2. INGLEHART AND THE CONSEQUENCES – ISLAM ON THE MAP OF GLOBAL VALUE CHANGES – A FIRST ASSESSMENT

3. EURO-ISLAM AND EUROPE’S LEADING CULTURE. 6.6 MILLION HOMOPHOBES AMONG 229 MILLION TAX EVADERS?

4. THE GLOBAL PROTEST POTENTIAL AGAINST THE “WASHINGTON CONSEXUS” (= LIBERAL MARKET ECONOMY + LIBERAL DEMOCRACY + SEXUAL PERMISSIVENESS + SECULARIZATION)

5. ANOTHER LOOK AT “ASABIYYA” – THE SOCIAL COHESION OF SOCIETY

THE COUNTRY MAPS OF GLOBAL VALUE CHANGE

6. THE NORTHWARD MIGRATION OF GLOBAL INTOLERANCE AND THE “GLOBAL TOLERANCE INDEX”

7. SIMON KUZNETS RE-VISITED: THE U-SHAPED TRADEOFF BETWEEN TOLERANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

8. ACTIVE SOCIETY, TOLERANCE AND DEVELOPMENT – THE CROSS-NATIONAL EVIDENCE

9. “WHO ARE WE”? A FACTOR ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL VALUE DIFFERENCES

A DIGRESSION ON THE IMAGES OF THE “OTHER” – A 19TH CENTURY ART AND A 21ST CENTURY INTERNET IMAGE EXPLORATION

THE STRUCTURE OF GLOBAL PREJUDICES

10. BY WAY OF CONCLUSION: HOW MUCH SECULARIZATION IS NECESSARY, AND HOW MUCH SECULARIZATION IS RECOMMENDABLE?

APPENDIX 1-8

Index

Binding: Hardcover

Pub. Date: 2009, 3rd quarter

ISBN: 978-1-60692-731-1

Status: AV

This book is based on the quantitative, multivariate analysis of the World Values Survey data from more than 80 countries around the globe on the political and social values of the world’s Muslim communities by international comparison.

For the first time, a fully documented and comprehensive world-wide representative analysis of

Global Muslim perceptions of life
Global Muslim perceptions on problems of the environment
Global Muslim attitudes to work
Global Muslim attitudes on the family
Global Muslim opinions on politics and society
Global Muslim opinions on religion and morale
Global Muslim opinions on national identity
Global Muslim Sociodemographics

is thus available to the public. By and large, the study comes to the conclusion that global Muslims and also the Muslim communities in Western democracies are value-conservative, family-oriented, but supportive of democracy.

Which perspectives then are available to analyze the facts? The study takes up the idea of “Asabiyya” (“social cohesion”), inherent in classic Arab historiography, first described by Ibn Chaldun (1332 to 1406) in his important work “Muqaddimah”.

Is “modernization” without “spiritual values” possible in the long run? Starting from the sophisticated multivariate analysis of the World Values Survey data (factor analysis), it is shown that two factors are decisive in understanding global value change: a continuum of “traditional versus secular”, and a continuum „cheating versus active society“. Asabiyya is defined then empirically by the residuals from the factor scores of “traditional versus secular”, and „cheating versus active society“. Asabiyya in the 21st Century, as a way out from the modernization trap of societies, characterized by large-scale social anomaly, is a high secularism combined with a high active society score, thus avoiding the “modernization trap” of an increasingly secular society, which accepts cheating on taxes; accepts government benefits fraud and taking bribes.

According to the empirical analysis of this book, the “active society” of volunteer organization work is the best societal medicine against this kind of value decay, which is so common in countries like France, Brazil, or most of East Central Europe and the former USSR. An active form of religious or non-religious humanism, which provides a noble motivation for such activities as volunteer social services, is a very necessary precondition for social cohesion in the 21st Century.

Our study also constructs various indices of global value change and also performs a factor analysis of global value differences. Without active society, multicultural societies will fail. The study also quantitatively compares European values and paths of secularization, and cautiously argues in favor of the rediscovery of the classic democratic workers’ parties agenda of Europe during the pre-war and post-world-war II period in large sections of the Muslim world.

Statements from the back-cover:

“This volume provides a formidable account of Muslim volumes with regard to key questions of tradition and modernization, offering important new perspectives on the relationship of culture and values to social change. The data support arguments regarding the integration of Muslim majorities into modern society, while also identifying the the pockets of anti-modern extremism. The account is indispensable for a full understanding of religious and cultural conflict today.”

Russell A. Berman, Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University

“Professor Tausch’s astute analysis of Muslim values is the foundation to a
policy response of a global issue. A study that has arrived at the appropriate
time”

Yitzhak Berman, Sociologist, Bet El, Israel; former Director of the Department of Planning and Social Analysis at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Jerusalem, Israel, and  School of Social Work of Bar Ilan University

“I am most grateful for your excellent survey of Muslim values. I learned much from it, and I plan to share it with my colleagues and students”.

Amitai Etzioni, University Professor, The George Washington University, Washington, DC

“Professor Tausch launches a massive attack on stereotypes. Scientific data from the World Values Survey refute widespread myths about Islam and Muslims. Images of “the noble European” or “the noble Christian” and “the savage Muslim” are exposed as mere propaganda”.

Gernot K?hler, Professor emeritus of Computer Studies, Department of Computing and Information Management, Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario, CND, author of “Global economics: an introductory course” (Nova Science, 2007) and “The global wage system: a study of international wage differences” Nova Science 2004

Arno Tausch presents a powerful and controversial interpretation of the growth of contemporary religion as a protest against capitalist forms of globalization with its attendant destruction of families, communities, and restraints on sexual licentiousness. An important contribution to understanding the global struggles we face today.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine and author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right

Back-cover statements from other recent publications:

“Arno Tausch’s work combines analytical insight and statistical ingenuity, to important and disturbing effect.”

James Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen jr Chair in Government/Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the University of Texas at Austin, and author of: “Unbearable cost: Bush, Greenspan and the economics of empire” (Palgrave Mcmillan, 2006),“Created unequal: the crisis in American pay” (The Free Press, 1998), and “Inequality and industrial change: a global view” (Cambridge University Press, 2001, with Maureen Berner)

“Arno Tausch has written a remarkable book. He starts from a highly original theoretical perspective combining a Schumpeterian model of creative destruction or ‘destructive creation’ and world system theory, and goes on to analyse the Lisbon Process and the indicators linked to it using advanced statistical methods. He concludes that the chosen indicators and the many of the accompanying policies make no sense. His conclusions will not comfort core beliefs on either the right or the left.

Peter Holmes, Professor, Dept of Economics, University of Sussex, Author of “French planning in theory and practice” (G. Allen & Unwin, 1983, with Saul Estrin); “Competition and economic integration in Europe” (Edward Elgar, 1998, with Saul Estrin,), and “Trade and ‘domestic’ policies: the European mix ” Journal of European Public Policy, Volume 13, Issue 6 September 2006: 815 – 831

“A publication, politicians should take into their “toolbox” before they drown the European project like the Titanic”

Peter Herrmann, Senior Research Fellow, College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Ireland, and author of “Politics and Policies of the Social in the European Union  Looking at the Hidden Agendas” (Nova Science, 2006) and “Defining Social Services  between the particular and the general” (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2007, co-editor)

““Titanic 2010?” is a warning that Europe could sink like the Titanic because of its lack of competitiveness in the knowledge race.“

Gernot K?hler, Professor emeritus of Computer Studies, Department of Computing and Information Management, Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario, CND, author of “Global economics: an introductory course” (Nova Science, 2007) and “The global wage system: a study of international wage differences” Nova Science 2004

“As always, Arno Tausch analyses important economic and social processes in a critical and highly thought provoking way. Putting his finger on contradictions and problems of the EU’s Lisbon agenda, he once again brilliantly combines empirical analysis with the theoretical foundations of growth and transformation.”

Kunibert Raffer, Professor of Economics, Vienna University, and author of “The economic North-South divide six decades of unequal development” (Edward Elgar, 2001, with Hans Singer), “The foreign aid business: economic assistance and development co-operation” (Edward Elgar, 1996, with Hans Singer) and “Unequal exchange and the evolution of the world system: reconsidering the impact of trade on North-South relations” (Palgrave Macmillan, 1987)

“Professor Tausch’s ‘Titanic 2010? is essential reading for anyone interested in assessing the European integration process from a global perspective.”
Manfred B. Steger, Professor of Global Studies, Director, Globalism Research Centre, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and author of “Globalism: market ideology meets terrorism” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), “The Quest for Evolutionary Socialism. Eduard Bernstein and Social Democracy.” (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and “The rise of the global imaginary: political ideologies from the French Revolution to the global war on terror” (Oxford University Press, 2008)

“I hope your book enjoys a wide readership.”

Glenn Firebaugh, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography, Pennsylvania State University, USA, and author “The New Geography of Global Income Inequality”, Harvard University Press

“This book is a welcome and timely endeavor to the study of Globalization, which as we know is the currency of contemporary economic and political debates. It is very broad in scope and its more than 40 pages of references provides the most complete survey for research and information on this field that I’ve already seen. Undoubtedly an outstanding contribution to the field of international politics, which deserves pride of place in the library of any scholar interested in political and social sciences”.

Prof. Dr. Tessaleno Devezas, Systems scientist, University of Beira Interior, Portugal

“I am pleased to add my recommendation to your publication”.

Jeffrey D. Kentor, Associate Professor, and Director of Graduate Studies; Department of Sociology, University of Utah; USA, Editor “International Journal of Comparative Sociology”

“A pioneering undertaking, stressing the importance of active behavior to face different challenges of globalization. Not less importantly, it underlines the urgent need for future-oriented forms of global governance in order to manage, and orient global processes and to contribute to creating a 21st century mentality in the largest possible part of our societies.”

Andr?s Inotai, director general, Institute for World Economics, Budapest

“Congratulations on your new book. Keep it up”:

Syed M. Ahsan, Graduate Program Director, Department of Economics, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

“Congratulations to your interesting and important new book”:

Franz J. Broswimmer, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and author of the bestseller Ecocide: a short history of mass extinction of species.

“Les problèmes traités dans cet ouvrage sont d’une importance capitale”:

Tahar Haffad, Professor of Economics, Laboratoire d’Etudes des Economies Maghrébines (LEEM), Batna University, Algeria.

“I am very glad to find out that you still fight against the wave”:

Professor Ali Hemal, Laboratoire LEEM, Université de Batna, Algeria.

“I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations, and thanks, to you for producing this brilliant piece of research. I plan to use this material in a forthcoming article I’m working on about islamist radicalization in the UK”:

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Executive Director, Institute for Policy Research and Development, London, author of the bestsellers The War on Freedom and Behind the War on Terror.

“Many thanks! This is a nice finding”:

Indra de Soysa, Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.