PRINCETON, NJ -- "Seek first to understand, then to be understood" is one of the core principles highlighted in Stephen R. Covey's best-selling "7 Habits of Highly Effective People." It's unlikely that many residents of the nine predominantly Islamic countries included in our series of recent Gallup polls have read Covey's book. But his message is echoed in their responses to our questions.
At issue are the startlingly wide perceptual differences in the way residents of these predominantly Islamic countries look at the world compared to the West -- and the actions that can be taken to close the gap. As implied in Covey's maxim, communication is a two-way street. There is the effort to be understood, to explain, to preach, to tell. And there is the often more difficult effort to understand and listen.
Seeking to be understood is very much a part of the Bush administration's game plan. Asked about the results of the Gallup polls, the president said: "There is no question that we must do a better job of telling the compassionate side of the American story. We've got work to do." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher spoke of Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Charlotte Beers' work in "explaining the policy, getting on Arabic TV, putting out information" -- a fitting approach for the former Madison Avenue advertising executive.
These efforts on the United States' part to be understood are well intentioned. They are needed. The people of these Islamic countries have negative perceptions of the United States that are often based on invalid information. The United States is quite remarkably a religious nation, but the people of Islamic cultures don't always believe it. The people of the United States are conservative on many moral and ethical issues, but the people of Islamic cultures don't think so. The people of the United States like to help other nations, but our respondents tend to think just the opposite.
I don't think that residents of predominantly Islamic countries have been or are going to be immediately receptive to U.S. propaganda efforts. The people of these cultures in many ways agree with the order in which Covey outlines his recipe for improved relationships: understand first, and then be understood.
We asked at one point in the polls: "In your opinion, what could the Western societies do in order to improve relations with the Arab/Islamic worlds?" The respondents in these Arab and Islamic cultures included in the poll talked about their desires for more communication, their desire that the West promote better understanding through dialogue, debates and cultural interaction, that the West demonstrate less prejudice and be fairer, that the West show more consideration and not underestimate the status of the Arab and Islamic countries, and that there be more respect for and understanding of Islam. Underscoring this, many respondents in the countries included in the poll say that the West shows minimal concern for a better coexistence between Western societies and the Arab and Islamic world.
Indeed, the apparent desire for understanding was so dominant in the survey that it became one of the two major summary points we isolated in our analysis. The people of these Islamic cultures -- who tend to see the United States as arrogant, ruthless and biased -- also see the United States (and the West) as uninterested and uninformed. Receptivity to understanding the United States and the West, it seems, will be minimal until it is clear that the United States and the West are at the same time attempting to understand the people of these cultures.
It's not that such efforts at understanding Arab and Islamic cultures aren't already going on. We were told in Washington a week ago that the CIA, Defense Department, State Department, and other agencies of the U.S. government are all apparently groping to understand the Islamic and Arab world, using a wide variety of information sources. In fact, we were told that many of the conclusions of our polls came as no surprise.
Unfortunately, much of these efforts appear to be behind the scenes. It's too much a private part of the equation. It is obviously unclear to many people of the Islamic nations in which we conducted interviews that the United States or its peoples are even interested in understanding them, much less attempting to do so on a significant level. The public part of the U.S. government effort is focused more on pushing the information flow from the West to the Islamic nations. The flow of information from there to here is much too private.
In this situation, the need for understanding is more than just an abstract concept. It is a real request made by respondents whose feelings are representative of more than a billion people worldwide. It seems that the "seek first to understand" maxim would be a highly effective habit to adopt in this situation.