Bell Pottinger is working with polling firm Gallup to promote better understanding of Muslims in the West.
The agency has been brought in to promote the Muslim West Fact Initiative project, a database containing ordinary Muslims’ opinions on world issues and relations with the West.
The data have been taken from Gallup’s ‘Poll of the Muslim World’, which asks Muslims living in western nations and more than 40 Muslim countries their views on world events, gender, religion and how the West can improve relations with Muslims. It also shows how the West thinks it can improve relations.
Gallup and the Coexist Foundation, which jointly run the resource, hope it can create tolerance between the two cultures and give a voice to the ‘silent majority’ of Muslims.
‘The subject has been dominated by a few with extreme views,’ said Bell Pottinger director David Hill. ‘This resource shows what ordinary Muslims think and enables leaders, institutions and the public to make more informed decisions.’
Bell Pottinger has been brought in on a retained basis and briefed to create a long- lasting and broad awareness of the resource. ‘We want to make it an automatic point of reference for decision makers,’ said Hill.
The agency has helped promote the initial findings and a linked Gallup book, Who Speaks For Islam, in the US, the Middle East and the UK. Three members of the Bell Pottinger Collective will work on the account, led by Hill.
Last year Hill worked with A Common Word, a project set up by 138 Islam scholars concerned about Muslim/Christian relations. They sent a letter to the Pope and other Christian leaders, calling for interfaith peace and setting out the basis on which the two religions can have
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