American policy toward Arab nations & toward
Palestinians.
| Nation |
Fav |
Unfav |
| Lebanon |
9 |
86 |
| Kuwait |
6 |
88 |
| Iran |
1 |
84 |
| Egypt |
4 |
86 |
| Saudi Arabia |
8 |
88 |
| The UAE |
15 |
76 |
| Indonesia |
6 |
77 |
| Pakistan |
20 |
72 |
| Venezuela |
36 |
38 |
| France |
17 |
71 |
Our objectives were:
To determine how adults in Arab & Muslim/non-Arab countries feel about specific
items relative to the American people & culture.
To ascertain whether or not these adults differentiate between their feelings toward the
American people & culture, on one side, & American policy in the Middle East
region.
|
|
|
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks,
Americans became painfully aware of the gap in understanding between our world and much of
the Arab world. Front page headlines and newsmagazine cover stories asked "why do
they hate us?
Our methodology was simple. We conducted face-to-face interviews in five Arab nations -
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
Face-to-face interviews were also conducted in three non-Arab Muslim nations
- Pakistan, Iran, and Indonesia. To establish a proper context for our results, we
also conducted face-to-face interviews in France & Venezuela.
At a time when the United States is building a broad coalition against terrorism, this
poll shows that U.S. policy in the Middle East provides a significant stumbling block.
However, there does not appear to be any built in resentment toward either the American
culture or its people. Instead, evidence suggests that U.S. policies may indeed complicate
a cultural and people-to-people affinity that clearly exists.
"There is a very serious need now for more international polls that compare
publics across the world. The 10-Nation Report is a strong effort to meet this need
which focuses not only on attitudes toward the US as such, but towards its policies in the
Mideast. While the study's strong point is its wide coverage of Islamic countries,
it is enriched by the inclusion of one country in Europe and one in South America--
invaluable for showing that the Islamic world is not so isolated in some of its views as
is sometimes believed."
Steven Kull
Director
(PIPA)
The Program on International Policy Attitudes
Washington DC |
