DOHA • The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Georgetown University in the US yesterday launched its report on Islam-West relations, which is said to be a first of its kind.

The report titled Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue is a systematic and thorough overview of how Muslim and Western societies perceive and relate to each other at the political, social, economic and cultural levels.

The report which is the result of research carried out by leading academics and experts in the field, finds that a majority of the people around the world believe that violent conflict between the West and the Muslim world can be avoided. They also share a great deal of pessimism about the current state of the relationship.

Among both Muslim majority and non-Muslim majority nations, the number of people who say they think the "other side" is committed to better relations rarely rises above a minority of 30 per cent.

Notwithstanding the prevalent sense of scepticism, majority of the people say that better interaction between the Muslim and Western worlds is important to them.

"The World Economic Forum believes that like all other global challenges, it will take the collaborative effort of all stakeholders from government, business, religion, media, academia and civil society to pre-empt any crisis, create alliances and find solutions," said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

The report features a Gallup Muslim-West Dialogue Index, which is a ranking of countries based on citizens' degree of optimism about the state of relations between the West and the Muslim world.

The report also presents an analysis of the portrayal of Islam and the West in newspapers and television across 24 countries by Media Tenor; and a survey by Georgetown University of international, national and local efforts to improve Muslim-West relations.

An important finding of the report is the emergence of citizenship and integration as the second most powerful shaper of the state of dialogue after international politics.

Growing Muslim minorities committed to active and full citizenship, particularly in Europe, are increasingly finding a voice in the public sphere. Governments committed to ideals of equality and recognition, but eager to maintain majority support and national cohesion, are seeking to engage Muslim groups in structured dialogue; with mixed results.

Greater interaction with the Muslim world is actually seen as a threat by 60 percent of the citizens in many European countries but not in America or Israel, finds the report.