Arab Center Washington DC Releases Results of 2017-2018 Arab Opinion Index

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On July 10, 2018, Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) released the results of the 2017-2018 Arab Opinion Index conducted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) in Doha, Qatar. It surveyed 18,830 respondents in 11 Arab countries (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Tunisia) between December 2017 and March 2018. This annual public opinion survey is the largest of its kind in the Arab world.

Questions probed a number of issues regarding the quality of life in the Arab world; US foreign policy in the Arab region; attitudes toward the Palestinian issue, democracy, and political participation; religion and religiosity and their connections to political life; intra-Arab relations; and opinions about the so-called Islamic State (IS).

Arab public attitudes regarding the foreign policies of regional and global powers toward the Arab region are broadly negative. 79% of respondents held negative views of US foreign policy toward the Arab countries; 64% had negative views of Iran's Arab policies; and 55% expressed negative views of Russia's policy toward the Arab states. The 2017-2018 results were the most negative Arab public attitudes toward US foreign policy since 2014, when the question was first included in the survey.

When asked to look at specific US foreign policy areas, vast majorities of Arabs had negative views of US policy toward Palestine (87%, up from 79% in 2016), Syria (81%), and Iraq (82%). 90% of Arabs maintain that the Palestinian cause concerns all Arabs.

Respondents in the Arab region provided different answers when asked to name the country that poses the largest threat to their national security. Israel was the most cited, while second was the United States, and third was Iran. 90% of Arabs believe that Israel poses a threat to the security and stability of the region.

An overwhelming majority (87%) of Arabs would disapprove of recognition of Israel by their home countries, with only 8% accepting formal diplomatic recognition. When asked to elaborate on the reasons for their positions, 75% of respondents cited Israel's policies toward Palestinians and the region.

The survey found that 76% of Arabs believe that democracy is the most appropriate system of governance while 69% indicated that they were politically apathetic. Only 12% report being members in a political party. 26% of Arabs said they would like to immigrate to other countries, for economic and political reasons

Tamara Kharroub, Assistant Executive Director and Senior Fellow at ACW, said that the gap between democratic aspirations of Arabs and political efficacy is problematic. "When there is no faith in achieving change through the political process and no avenues for expression, we begin to see an increase in violence, and we see extremist ideologies grow."

Commenting on the results, Dana El Kurd, Researcher at ACRPS, said that "Arab opposition to Israel is sometimes painted in religious terms or is claimed to be a result of some inherent anti-Semitism, but our data shows that across self-identified religiosity levels, the majority of respondents oppose recognition of Israel for reasons related to Israeli policies."

Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, expressed his surprise at how the negative perception of US foreign policy has continued to grow among Arabs over the past few years. "Over the years we've said 'it can't get any worse, it can't get any worse.' But it does get worse."

The Executive Summary of the findings can be found on ACW's website: http://arabcenterdc.org/index2018

SOURCE Arab Center Washington DC