Survey finds US a primary threat to Arab, Islamic world
Web posted at: 2/19/2006 3:42:30
Source ::: The Peninsula

DOHA: A recent survey conducted in six Arab countries by a leading international think-tank has shown that anti-American sentiments are still running very high among the public, with about 70 per cent of the participants viewing the US as a primary threat to the Arab and Islamic world.

Findings of the survey were presented by Shibley Telhami, professor, University of Maryland and Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, while addressing the US-Islamic World Forum at the Ritz Carlton yesterday. The countries covered by the survey included Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

After the war, Iraq has emerged as the new prism through which the Arabs view the American policy in the Middle East, Telhami said. Earlier, Palestine was the key issue through which they viewed the western world. However, after the Hamas victory, there was a possibility that Palestine would come back to the centre stage, he noted.

Majority of the participants in the survey don't believe that Iraq war was motivated by America's desire to bring democracy in the region. Rather they believe that oil, Israel and weakening of the Islamic world were the key motives behind the war.

Another interesting finding of the survey was that majority of the Arab public, contrary to the Arab governments, don't find the Iranian nuclear programme a threat to their security. They, however, believe that Iran is serious about building nuclear power. When asked whether the international community should pressure Iran on the nuclear issue, the majority answer was "no," Telhami said. Majority of the participants were also not worried about the possibility of Iran emerging as a major power after the weakening of Iraq.

The survey conducted in October last year also found that calls to boycott American and European products had a major impact on the Arab markets, though for a short period. During the Iraq war, McDonalds suffered a 50 per cent decline in its sales in Egypt. Telhami, however, noted that the impact of these boycott calls didn't last for more than six months.

The Iraq issue was so dominant in the people's mind that a large number of participants voted French President Jac Chirac as the number one leader in the West and France as the freest country, due to its different stand on the Iraq war. This was despite the ban imposed by France on wearing head scarf by Muslim women, Telhami said.

On a positive note, Telhami said hatred against Americans among the Arab public had declined slightly in the recent months. In reply to a specific question about President George W Bush, majority of the surveyed said his policies were moved by American security interests, rather than his Christian faith. "This is a positive indication since a large number of people in the Arab world don't view the current conflict as an Islam-Christian conflict," Telhami said.