Arab public opinionArab public opinion overwhelmingly opposes ISIS
The most comprehensive public opinion poll in the Arab world found that the Arab world as a whole is overwhelmingly opposed to ISIS, with 89 percent of respondents saying that they have negative views of the group, compared to only 7 percent of Arabs who view the extremist organization positively. The results of the survey also show no significant correlation between support for ISIS and religiosity: In other words, support for radical extremist organizations in the Arab world, where it exists, is rooted in political grievances within the Arab region and its conflicts, and not in a religious ideology. The 2015 Arab Opinion Index was released on Monday. The twelve countries in which the survey – which used randomized, self-weighted, multi-stage cluster method — was conducted comprise 90 percent of the population of the Arab League.
Turkish protestors condemning ISIS and the PKK // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Results from the 2015 Arab Opinion Index (AOI), the largest public opinion poll of its kind in the Arab region, were officially released in Doha, Qatar on Monday. This year’s findings were based on 18,311 face to face interviews conducted in twelve Arab countries.
The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, which conducts the annual survey, says that the latest survey affords scholars and policy makers the opportunity to understand how the Arab citizenry views the most pressing issues which face it today, including the Iranian nuclear deal; the growth of radical extremism, and, in particular, ISIS; and the Syrian conflict. In addition, respondents’ answers to the survey questions offer valuable information on Arab citizens’ attitudes toward democracy, the relationship between religion and civil and political affairs, and the future prospects of their home countries.
This year’s Arab Opinion Index is the fourth year that the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies has conducted its yearly survey of Arab public opinion, allowing comparisons in the Arab public attitudes toward the main issues surveyed in all AOI polls since its launch in 2011.
Responses to the 2015 questions show that the Arab world as a whole is overwhelmingly opposed to ISIS, with 89 percent of respondents saying that they have negative views of the group, compared to only 7 percent of Arabs who view the extremist organization positively. Equally, the results of the survey show no significant correlation between support for ISIS and religiosity: favorable views of ISIS are equally prevalent among respondents who are “very religious” and those who are “not religious,” and also equally prevalent amongst opponents and supporters of the separation of religion from the state. In other words, the Center notes, support for radical extremist organizations in the Arab world, where it exists, is rooted in political grievances within the Arab region and its conflicts, and not in a religious ideology.
One of the more pronounced political grievances in the Arab world over the past five years has been the continued suffering of the Syrian people. In fact, “sectarian tensions in Iraq and Syria” were cited by more than one fifth of respondents as a main factor which contributed to the rise of ISIS.
