The following article explains misperception between Muslims and Non-Muslims. It uses an adapted form of Robert Jervis’ 14 points on the “Hypotheses of Misperception” as published in World Politics, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Apr., 1968), pp. 454-479.

With the advent of the MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and other social networking websites onlinethe Muslim population of the world has increasingly come in contact with the outside world and vice versa. Though Western culture has been ever present in most Islamic countries in the form of movies, media and other cultural-communicative mediums, there has been a lack of actual interaction between Muslims and Non-Muslims en masse. This has changed recently. But will this change the way people actually relate to each other?

Through 3rd party mediums like Al-Jazeera, state run propagandist TV channels like Pakistan’s PTV, ultra-conservative news agencies like FoxNews and even ideologically “progressive” newspapers like the Washington Post, stereotypes as to the other side were established in the minds of the viewers. The images this sort of media creates exemplifies their differences to the degree of making the “other side” look almost alien in their basic values and beliefs. While these perceptions may hold varying degrees of authenticity, the overall impression both sides have of each other – to put it mildly – can not be called accurate.

For example, most Muslims living in Islamic countries who have not visited the West feel that the West objectifies and disrespects women – and the image in their mind is that of a bikini clad “hot” blonde strolling down a beach… courtesy of BayWatch (or something like Baywatch)!

Most Western people who also have not had the opportunity to visit a Muslim country, have the concept in mind that Muslim women are oppressed – the stereotypical image they have in mind is of a shambling mound of walking curtain, trudging through an arid and rocky terrain on a blazingly hot summer-day.

Both these images are poor generalizations. Though there probably are millions of “walking curtains” in the Islamic world, there are at least an equal number of non-walking curtains. These “Muslims” hang on window sills. But there is also a significantly large number of non-curtain clad women in the Islamic world. Just as there are (unfortunately, har har) clothed women in the West.

But what causes such misperceptions? Several different hypotheses exist. The following, by Robert Jervis are the well respected by social scholars;

1. Belief-Fact Gap:

The issue here is that most people tend “to fit incoming information into their existing theories and images”. Robert Jervis further explains this concept: “A theory will have greater impact on a [person's] interpretation of data – the greater the ambiguity of the data & the higher the degree of confidence with which the actor holds the theory.” (p. 466)

For example, our “friendly” neighborhood trigger happy Texan would interpret news about Muslims sacrificing goats and other animals to Allah, as a ritual for venting their terrorist emotions until they’re able to get their hands on other Daniel Pearls. In her mind Muslims are the “enemy” and such an act of violence would only confirm her belief that Islam preaches violence. (Just to note: We Towelians are against animal cruelty in all its forms. Especially when it has a religious bent). In the same way our “Love thy neighbor or I will shoot you in the face” Muslim would interpret the Danish cartoons as part of a greater conspiracy against Islam. Or at least the “Diet Muslim” (aka “moderate Muslim”) would view it as part of the larger “Clash of civilizations”.

2. Belief-New Idea Gap:

Robert Jervis writes: “[people are] apt to err by being too wedded to the established view and too closed to new information, as opposed to being too willing to alter their theories” (p. 468)

This issue is especially true for Muslims because unlike bikini clad Texans armed with M16 rifles, they have an extremely ill-advised confidence in their interpretation of the world – an interpretation that is almost exclusively shaped by their religion. Therefore if it is insisted to them that their worldview is erroneous, instead of re-assessing their image of the West, they will get offended. This is mostly because the mainstream Muslim worldview has been thoroughly molded by religious belief; the Quran extensively talks about various people including Jews, Christians and other “kafirs” (non-believers) in highly political terms. It even describes the mentality and machinations of non-Muslims, ranging from how they might interpret and respond to the content of the Quran, to the kind of intentions they will have towards Muslims (eg: Sura 8:30 YUSUFALI: “Remember how the Unbelievers plotted against thee, to keep thee in bonds, or slay thee, or get thee out (of thy home). They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah”). Therefore trying to convince them, for example, that the Afghanistan invasion was not part of a “plot against Islam” will be taken as an indirect attack on their religious beliefs. This sort of thinking insulates Muslims from external criticism of their beliefs. And by “insulate” I mean… (add expletive of choice here).

Here are examples of Muslim interpretation of data:

Muslim Image of Israelis: Muslims believe that Israeli people or Zionists (the terms appear to be interchangeable) are waging a pseudo covert war against Muslims and Islam in general. Specifically that the Israelis are enemies of Islam.

Data: Israel sentences Jewish Terrorist

Muslim Interpretation of Data: This maneuver by the Israeli government will be interpreted as a publicity stunt rather than an act inspired by justice, since the enemy could not possibly have any good qualities.

The heart of the matter is that whenever Israelis do something wrong like commit human rights abuses in the West Bank, it confirms Muslim beliefs about Israel, but when Israelis do something right like apprehending and sentencing a Jewish terrorist, Muslims will not acknowledge this as a good thing. Therefore such news is “fit” into their world view by arbitrarily believing that their intentions behind even a just act are malicious. Clearly this is twisted thinking but what is truly worrisome is that this phenomenon is extremely pervasive throughout the strata of Muslim society, with social and economic barriers having little impact.

These are serious issues facing the Muslim world, especially if Muslims wish to live in harmony with the rest of the planet – and the situation is equally grave when it comes to the growing Islamophobia in the Western world. What people don’t understand is that for there to be harmony, they will need to give up some of their ideas about the world and compromise on their political objectives. But they are unwilling to – not because they are maliciously stubborn, but because they lack adequate concepts of self-critiquing, which blinds them to the errors of their own unreasonable world view.

Salahudin is a Pakistani writer. He is a libertarian-liberal apostate of Islam. He has lived in Pakistan and the US.

Tags: islam, media, politics, rhetoric, salahudin al-rawandi, west