![]() Does the West really understand today’s Middle East? However, strained relations of late between the West and traditional allies in the region are bringing a central question into sharp focus. The global energy crisis created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a regional security alliance against the threat of Iran – one that is currently being crystallised – will be uppermost on his agenda. Managing Director, Zogby Research Servicesįor the first time in his role as president of the United States, Joe Biden visits the Middle East this month. As my mother used to tell me: “If you want others to hear you, you must listen to them first.” Thanks to the Institute, Arab voices are speaking to you. I recommend this report be read carefully and respectfully.Ī final note to policymakers and political pundits: check your biases at the door and listen to what Arabs are telling us about what they want. It has undertaken to look deeply into Arab attitudes, to correct persistent stereotypes and to lay out a forward-looking agenda that responds to Arab aspirations. Given that this has been our life’s work, we’re delighted the Institute has provided us with the opportunity to conduct new polling exploring the critical issues facing the Arab world today. And when Arabs watch television, their favorite programmes are films, soap operas, and reality and game shows – in other words, they watch it to be entertained. We also learned that mosque-attendance rates are comparable to church-attendance rates. ![]() Their political priorities are much like ours: secure employment, better educational opportunities and improving their health care. What they don’t like are our policies towards them. We found that Arabs deeply respect the United States and its values of freedom, innovation and opportunity. Comparing those results with our polling from across the Arab world revealed a profound disconnect. At one point, I noted from our polling in the United States that there is a perception that Arabs hate us, despise our values, and spend too much time listening to preachers and television programmes that reinforce this hatred. In my 2010 book Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us and Why It Matters, I looked at what we learned from our polling about attitudes across the Arab world and compared them with the views that people in the West have of Arabs. And if we pay attention to what people are telling us, we can better shape our policies to respond, to meet their real needs, not the ones we have assumed they have. When we analyse the results, a portrait emerges that can assist us in dispelling stereotypes and correcting misconceptions. I call it “the respectful science” because we record the views of every respondent. For us, polling opens a window, allowing Arab voices to be heard. We have been polling on many of these issues for two decades now. ![]() And the path forward, as it proposes, is to replace myths and misconceptions with genuine understanding.įor this reason, we at Zogby Research Services (ZRS) were pleased to accept the Institute’s offer to conduct polling across the Arab world to learn what Arabs, young and old, think about issues ranging from the role of religion in daily life to the advancement of women in the workplace – as well as the importance of prioritising opportunities for young people to learn the technological skills they need to be better equipped to participate in the 21st-century economy. Recognising that the Arab world sits at the pivot point of three continents in which we have invested so much, and that this is still a region of enormous human potential, the Institute believes that correcting course is the better option. Thankfully, the Tony Blair Institute has taken a different approach. In recognition of these failures and still hampered by attitudes shaped by negative perceptions, some voices in the West now argue for disengagement from the region. One consequence of this has been the oversimplification of a complex region, which has led to costly policy disasters. Our policymakers and political analysts talk about Arabs and at Arabs, but they rarely consider listening to Arabs in order to fully understand their lives, and their needs and hopes for the future. ![]() ![]() As a result, our understanding of who Arabs are, and what values and aspirations they have, too often misses the mark. As this report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change makes clear, Western perceptions of the Arab world are too often shaped by negative stereotypes and anecdotal evidence used to justify prejudicial views – rather than by reality. ![]()
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