University of Michigan 25-Mar-03
Middle East Public Opinion Analysis Shows Attitudes Toward Israel, U.S. Library: LIF-SOC Keywords: IRAQ WAR MIDDLE EAST Description: A University of Michigan analysis of rare public opinion data from the Arab world shows that most people support peace with Israel and favor democracy as the best form of government. (J. of Social Affairs, forthcoming)
The University of Michigan News Service 412 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399
March 10, 2003 Contact: Diane Swanbrow Phone: (734) 647-9069 E-mail: Swanbrow at umich.edu Web: www.umich.edu/news
www.isr.umich.edu
EDITORS: Downloadable charts are available at: http://www.umich.edu/news/Releases/2003/Mar03/tessler_tables.html
U-M analysis of Middle East public opinion shows attitudes toward Israel, U.S.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A University of Michigan analysis of rare public opinion data from the Arab world shows that most people support peace with Israel and favor democracy as the best form of government.
Moreover, men and women who are more religious and whose attachment to Islam is strong are just as likely as less religious individuals to favor compromise with Israel and support democracy, according to Mark Tessler, a political scientist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), the world's largest academic survey and research organization.
For the new study, Tessler and U-M doctoral student Dan Corstange reviewed findings from many recent opinion surveys of ordinary men and women in Arab and Islamic countries. Some of the surveys were conducted by Arab scholars while others were conducted by U.S. polling firms and academic institutions, including the ISR. Their analysis will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Social Affairs.
One 2001 survey, based on a random sample of 1,318 West Bank and Gaza residents, found that three times as many people supported reconciliation with Israel as opposed it and that supporters were just as likely as opponents to be religious or very religious.
Another survey of 2,756 Egyptians, conducted in 2000 as part of the ISR World Values Survey, showed that most Egyptians favor democracy and that there is virtually no difference in the attitudes of more and less religious people.
A third survey of 1,223 Jordanians, also conducted as part of the ISR World Values Survey, found that more than 70 percent felt that Islamic leaders should not influence politics, compared to less than 20 percent who felt religious leaders should, and that views about this issue are almost identical among men and women with different levels of mosque attendance and involvement in religious activities.
"Religion and culture are not fostering antipathy to Western norms and institutions," said Tessler. "In fact, political and economic factors are much more important than religion in accounting for variance in attitudes toward politics, governance and international relations.
"At a time of increasingly strained relations between the U.S. and the Arab world, it is particularly important to recognize the evidence that religious attachments do not foster the kinds of militant and totalitarian attitudes among ordinary people in the Arab world that some in the West allege," Tessler said.
Funding for the research and analyses came from a variety of sources, including the Ford Foundation, the U.S. State Department and the National Science Foundation.
For more information about the U-M Institute for Social Research, see http://www.isr.umich.edu. For Mark Tessler's homepage, visit http://polisci.lsa.umich.edu/faculty/mtessler.html. For more information about ISR World Values Surveys, go to http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/. --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]