Hatred of Israel, Homosexuality and Women’s Emancipation Are Dominant Beliefs in Arab World, New BBC Poll Reveals

From Algermeiner:

A clear majority of the Arab world continues to believe that Israel is the main threat in the Middle East and North Africa, a comprehensive BBC poll of 11 Arab countries revealed on Monday. 

The poll — which involved interviews with over 25,000 respondents in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria — also demonstrated that a strict social conservatism prevailed throughout the region, exemplified by a violent hatred of homosexuality. 

Opposition to women holding positions of power and influence, as well as sympathy for the practice of “honor killings” — the execution of female relatives for allegedly shaming their families — remains widespread as well. 

The poll, conducted for the British broadcaster by the Arab Barometer research organization, showed that residents of the Palestinian territories were more resistant to liberal democratic values than are their neighbors in several respects. 

Only five percent of Palestinian respondents — the lowest number in all the countries surveyed — regarded homosexuality as “acceptable.” 

Notwithstanding a string of brutal internal wars in Arab nations over the last decade in which several million people have been killed and displaced, Israel was still held up as the greatest threat to the region in most countries. 

In Lebanon, 79 percent of respondents identified Israel as the main threat, while in the Palestinian territories that figure was 63 percent. In all cases, the US came second. 

Despite their geographical distance from Israel, a plurality of respondents in Morocco, Algeria and Libya all agreed that the Jewish state was a more significant threat than any other country. 

Only in Iraq and Yemen did more respondents identify Iran — which has supported terrorist paramilitaries in the brutal internal conflicts in both countries — as a bigger threat than Israel. 

At the same time, the overwhelming dissatisfaction with living standards in the region meant that at least one in five residents of the Arab world wished to emigrate elsewhere. Europe remained the most popular destination, although a sizable number wanted to move to North America, or to other countries in their own region. 

About 30 percent of Palestinians would emigrate if given the opportunity, with the number rising to nearly 60 percent in the case of Sudan.