It's important to take notice of all the evidence against Samuel P. Huntington's influential theory that the world is heading towards a clash of civilisations, because if this theory wins out then there will almost certainly be a clash of civilisations.

The most recent challenge to this clash worldview is the Gallup World Poll of the Muslim World, started in the months following 9/11, which surveyed "a sample equivalent to 90% of the world's Muslims" in 40 Muslim nations. It makes a number of important discoveries which shouldn't surprise anybody but might anyway: when ordinary Muslims get a chance to speak what they say is one in the eye for extremists and Clashers.

From Yahoo news:

"Religion is an important part of life for the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and if it were indeed the driver for radicalisation, this would be a serious issue."

But the study, which Gallup says surveyed a sample equivalent to 90 percent of the world's Muslims, showed that widespread religiosity "does not translate into widespread support for terrorism," said Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews.

In majority Muslim countries, overwhelming majorities said religion was a very important part of their lives -- 99 percent in Indonesia, 98 percent in Egypt, 95 percent in Pakistan.

But only seven percent of the billion Muslims surveyed - the radicals - condoned the attacks on the United States in 2001, the poll showed.

Moderate Muslims interviewed for the poll condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington because innocent lives were lost and civilians killed.

"Some actually cited religious justifications for why they were against 9/11, going as far as to quote from the Koran - for example, the verse that says taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity," she said.

Meanwhile, radical Muslims gave political, not religious, reasons for condoning the attacks, the poll showed.

The survey shows radicals to be neither more religious than their moderate counterparts, nor products of abject poverty or refugee camps.

"The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims," John Esposito, who co-authored "Who Speaks for Islam", said.

"Ironically, they believe in democracy even more than many of the mainstream moderates do, but they're more cynical about whether they'll ever get it," said Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington.

Read also the Gallup press release, the Web site Muslim West Facts, set up by Gallup and The Coexist Foundation to disseminate the survey findings, and a book grounded in the survey data, Who Speaks for Islam.

Image source: Ahmadiyya Muslims & Holy Minar at Qadian (INDIA) by Captain Suresh on flickr.