Thursday January 14, 2016

I've Been Thinking:

The results of a very interesting survey that took place in October of 2015 have been released. They offer hope for our future.

5,374 people, both men and women, were surveyed in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories by the Zogby Research Services.

75% of people between the ages of 15 and 34 living in the Middle East said that ISIS and al Qaeda were a perversion of Islam.

They also say that the blame for the emergence of these extremists groups is corruption and leadership.

"At least three-quarters of millennial respondents in all countries surveyed" said movements like ISIS and Al-Qaeda "are either a complete perversion of Islam's teachings or mostly wrong."

In Morocco and the United Arab Emirates over 90% of those surveyed said that ISIS and al Qaeda were a "complete perversion." In Egypt 83% concurred also saying that ISIS and al Qaeda were a "complete perversion."

In the Palestinian Authority and in Saudi Arabia the numbers were lower and the sentiment not as dramatic. 55% said that the groups "were distorting Islam." It should be noted that a "distortion" is not the same as "a complete perversion."

This is very good news. Now we need to see the millennials behind these numbers standing up and stopping the perversion and the distortion. If that were to happen it would be a huge step towards defeating extremism.

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