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IslamOnline Poll Reveals Cutting Relations With Israel Not Enough
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) – Prior to the end of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, IslamOnline speculated from various news reports that the summit would issue a declaration that all Muslim states cut relations with Israel.
The final statement, issued during the week, however, merely “invited” Muslim states to cut those relations. This invitation was watered down from the term “requests” due to complaints from some African countries that maintain trade relations with Israel.
IslamOnline’s poll was posted before these events and stayed on the site during the passage of these events. Results indicated below may reflect IslamOnline poll participant’s knowledge of these events when poll answers were volunteered.
Of the 331 IslamOnline visitors who answered the survey question asking if a call by the OIC for all Muslim nations to cut relations with Israel would be an effective message, or if stronger measures were required, 76% (253) answered that stronger measures were required, while 78 (24%) stated that cutting off relations with Israel would be an effective measure.
As indicated above, “cutting off relations with Israel” was a strict answer in which it was assumed that the OIC would declare that all Muslim nations cut off relations with Israel. However, that declaration did not come. Instead, the OIC merely invited Muslim nations to severe relations.
It is impossible to know in which manner IslamOnline poll participants interpreted this information, or whether they strictly chose the poll answer, “as is,” without considering events in the real world. Given that, we must assume that poll participants thought either way.
If so, then we can have two possible conclusions concerning those who answered that cutting relations with Israel is an effective message. For those who answered before the OIC made the “invitation” and those who strictly answered the question after the event, without reference to it, we can assume that the 24% who believed that cutting off relations with Israel was an effective message believed so.
For those who answered that cutting relations with Israel was an effective message after the OIC invitation statement and whom took that information into consideration when voting in the poll, we can say that they too believed that cutting of relations were enough of a message; even more so than those who answered the option before the OIC statement or without consideration of it after the event.
Those who answered that stronger measures were required (76%) also faced the before, during and after dilemma of the OIC invitation statement.
For IslamOnline poll participants who believed that stronger measures were required before the OIC announcement, these individuals believed that even a strong declaration against Israel would not be enough.
Those who answered that stronger measures were required after the invitation to cut relations was announced by the OIC may have believed that the invitation itself was not enough compared against an all-out declaration cutting ties with Israel, as the answer option was posed.
In either case, an overwhelming 76% of IslamOnline poll respondents believed that stronger measures were required rather than cutting off relations with Israel (24%).
The option of “stronger measures required” was left deliberately vague. The purpose of the poll was not to see what stronger measures were needed, only to question whether an assumed OIC declaration stating that ties be cut with Israel was an adequate message to send to the Israelis and the U.S.
Given the events of the week, results from the poll cannot conclusively conclude that stronger measures are required against a specific declaration from the OIC cutting off relations with the Israeli state.
A conclusion that can be reached is that IslamOnline poll participants believe stronger measures are required against the Israeli state given both the OIC invitation and their assumed position of a concrete stand cutting off relations before Monday’s announcement.
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