Hypothesis 2

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relation to their business. Since the term can have a casual air upon it, it was necessary to check what the term in fact implied to the respondents in order to see if this is a term that non-Muslims must take into consideration when liaising with Muslim business partners.

Of all the respondents 11% stated that the term was merely a casual statement and that it did not carry a specific meaning to them. Some even preferred not to use the term. In other words as much as 89% of the respondents place an emphasis on the will of God in their business endeavors.

The complete range of answers can be found in Appendix 9.5. The selected statements in Table 6.1 illustrate that the statement of Insha’Allah should be taken serious with a few exceptions. Generally, it allows a degree of uncertainty and also implies that the sender of the statement cannot be held liable for an outcome not in favor of the receiver of the statement.

It can be argued that the statement should not be taken literally and a business contact from Western Europe could also regard the statement as a mere standard expression with no literal meaning or effect.

But the problem with such statement in a cultural context is that once expressed and once it has been used to excuse unfortunate outcomes, it increases uncertainty and introduces a lack of guarantee; as little as this was the intention from the sender. With more than 52% of my respondents using the phrase Insha’Allah, as basic and innocent as it may seem, it allows for uncertainty.

Given the thresholds that need to be observed in order to allow or reject Hypothesis 1, I can see that the varying numbers For instance a massive 89% claim that they apply the notions of Insha’Allah and 69%

does not operate with a dunning procedure. On the other hand almost 80% is either indifferent or disagrees with the statement that their non-Muslim business partners- religion is important to them.

Along the same lines almost 70% claim that their colleagues’ and employees’ religion is not important to them or they are indifferent. Finally 39% believe that their non-Muslim business partners have a stronger focus on profit.

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is particularly more sensitive with regards to Islam that their business partners from the West and their Christian backgrounds.

This paper does not offer a comparative study, but it will be of interest to assess if such sensibility is measurable besides what can be regarded as normal business behavior. It is a general premise that we do not offend each other and that we show a general respectfulness to each other and each other’s cultures.

Hypothesis 2 stated that

We know from question 50 in the survey that my respondents are comfortable around their international business partners when questions were pertaining to entering into discussions of political or religious character. The majority was rather indifferent in both cases (whether we are talking about politics or religion) with some 30% answering “indifferent”.

A majority is also comfortable when it comes to fasting and praying while being together with business partners with different backgrounds than Muslim. When I couple question 50 with question 46 about supplier’s religion - as well as question 41 and the consideration of Islamic tradition in the business operations - it seems that my respondents are not particularly concerned with the perception of Islam within the international business partners. Rather, it seems like my respondents have a relaxed view on their own religion (Islam) in their daily business endeavors with international business partners.

H2 was tested by coupling questions 46 and 50 with questions 52 and 53. These two latter questions were pertaining to the perceived respect towards Islam from Western business partners. The question can seem odd as the general premise is that the international business community is well educated, polite and well behaving towards each other, no matter the various cultural backgrounds.

But as H2 claims that the Middle Eastern business community is more sensitive than its Western counterpart, the questions were highly relevant. The questions were also sensitive and it was important

H2:

The Muslim business community in the Middle East is focused on respect of Islam’s values and respect of

the cultural heritage.

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not to add emotion and value into the questions. Hence, in question 52 I asked if the respondents were attentive rather than if they felt one way or the other. This more direct question was then asked in question 53, where I asked if they felt that their international counterparts were regarded as having a natural respect for Islam.

It was a claim that was rejected and therefore rejects hypothesis # 2. As can be seen in Fig.

6.10 the respondents claim that they are not particularly attentive to their business partners’ view on the respondents’ Middle Eastern backgrounds.

In other words, in my pool of respondents there is no specific sensitivity towards Islam, besides what can be expected as normal polite behavior. As little as 12% agree that they are attentive to the counterparts’ views and 77% either disagree or strongly disagree that they are attentive.

Question 53 closed the survey with the question if the respondents feel that their international business partners respect the respondents’ religion. The claim “I regard my international business partners as having a natural respect for my cultural and religious background” was supported in that 73% either agreed or strongly agreed that their international business partners respect the cultural and religious (Muslim) backgrounds of the respondents. Only 8% either disagreed or strongly disagreed that business partners respected their Muslim backgrounds, as can be seen in Fig. 6.11.

With my point of departure in the data collection and my pool of respondents, the Muslim business environment does not seem particularly sensitive with regards to Islamic values. This is not to say, that they do not prefer or appreciate a respectful tone around Islam and Muslims in general. But the data

Strongly disagree 26%

Disagree 41%

Indifferent 21%

Agree 9%

Strongly agree

3%

Fig. 6.10: Attentive to perception and respect of Islam

Strongly disagree

3%

Disagree 5%

Indifferent 19%

Agree 31%

Strongly agree

42%

Fig. 6.11: Business partners respect my cultural and religious background

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does not show a particularly high ratio of the pool that seems sensitive to the question.

Only a comparative study would allow me to conclude if my Muslim respondents are more focused on the respect for Islam and Islamic values than their European counterparts. General assumptions can be made, that Muslims are more sensitive than Protestants and demand more respect for Islam than is the case for Protestants and Christianity.

Several incidents over the last decades – like Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” from 1988 and the Danish cartoon crisis from 2005 and 2006 - could suggest that this is the case. But my data does not support the statement and the statement can only be investigated by a comparative study and further research.

As was the case in Hypothesis 1, I must evaluate the thresholds and claims pertaining to Hypothesis 2.

The variable pertaining to the importance of non-Muslim business partners’ religion shows that about 80% does not feel that this is important. As far as comfort when doing business with non-Muslim business partners again about 80% are quite conformable in this respect. When it came down to the importance of colleagues’ and employees’ religion the picture was a bit more unclear, as 54% claimed that the religion was not important. Regarding the degree of attentiveness to non-Muslim business partners’ view on the respondents’ religions was that about 90% was not attentive. And finally 70 regards their international business partners as having a natural respect for my respondents’ religion. If I include “indifferent”, the number is a massive 90%.