Majority of Arabs perceive Islamic State, Israel as main villains, finds survey

Terrorism by Islamic State militants has been a growing problem around the world. The terrorist organization is on the verge of collapse and if a recent survey is any indication, they have not many supporters among the Arab population either.

Results of the annual Arab Opinion Index (AOI) survey showed 89% of participants expressed negative or very negative views about the Islamic State, with just 2% expressing ‘very positive’ views, reported The Peninsula.

Three percent said their views were ‘positive to some extent.’ An overwhelming majority of respondents (99%) said they knew of Islamic State, but only 66% of them follow news regarding the organization.

Dr Mohammad Almasri, Executive Director of Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies released the fifth edition of Arab Opinion Index yesterday.

A much more detailed report of the surveys findings has also been made available.

The survey was based on face-to-face interviews with 18,310 respondents in 12 Arab countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.

Around 840 surveyors collaborated on the Arab Opinion Index, which is the largest public opinion survey in the Middle East and North Africa region.

They spent 45,000 hours for face-to-face interviews crossing a total of 760,000km across the population clusters sampled.

The Arab public was neatly divided about the success of the Arab Spring, with 45% feeling Arab Spring ‘will achieve its aims’ despite present setbacks. However, around 39% believed the ‘the Arab Spring had come to an end’ and that old regimes have returned to power.

The 2016 poll report, spread over 400 pages, reflected negative views about policies of regional and global powers. Around 75% of Arab public had negative views about United States policies towards Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

USA was also identified as the greatest single threat to collective Arab security: 67% of Arabs named both the US or Israel as the countries posing the greatest threat to collective Arab security, and 10% felt it was Iran.

Qatar Tribune reported that the Arab Opinion Index also found that a majority of Arabs had a negative view of Israel. About 86% of them renounced official recognition of Israel by their home countries.

About 89% agreed that Israel was a threat to stability of the Arab region and 81% agreed that US policies destabilised the region.