What do the world’s Muslims actually think?

In an entry that I posted on Friday, I cited the account given by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed of the survey on which they based their book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (New York: Gallup Press, 2007).  Here, now, are some of their results, in headline form (from pages xii-xiii):

•  Who speaks for the West?  Muslims around the world do not see the West as monolithic.  They criticize or celebrate countries based on their politics, not based on their culture or religion.
• Dream jobs:  When asked to describe their dreams for the future, Muslims don’t mention fighting in a jihad, but rather getting a better job.
• Radical rejection:  Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustified.
• Religious moderates:  Those who condone acts of terrorism are a minority and are no more likely to be religious than the rest of the population.
• Admiration of the West:  What Muslims around the world say they most admire about the West is its technology and its democracy — the same two top responses given by Americans when asked the same question.
• Critique of the West:  What Muslims around the world say they least admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values — the same responses Tgiven by Americans when posed the same question.
• Gender justice:  Muslim women want equal rights and religion in their societies.
• R.E.S.P.E.C.T.:  Muslims around the world say that the one thing the West can do to improve relations with their societies is to moderate their views toward Muslims and respect Islam.
• Clerics and constitutions:  The majority of those surveyed want religious leaders to have no direct role in crafting a constitution, yet favor religious law a a source of legislation.  

Esposito and Mogahed pose themselves a question:  “Why is democracy absent in so much of the Muslim world?”  Here is part of their answer:

The answer to this question lies more in history and politics than in religion.  We in the West had centuries to move from monarchies to modern democratic states, from divine-right kingdoms to modern secular nation-states, and we suffered from revolutionary and civil wars in the process.  In contrast, governments in the Muslim world, created after World War II, are only decades old.

Equally important, many Muslims lived for several centuries under European colonial rule.  In the mid-20th century, when many countries became nation-states, their borders and unelected rulers were often selected or approved by colonial powers.  (38-39)