Most Young Arabs Reject Islamic State

The large majority of young Arab adults say they do not support Islamic State (IS) militants.

And more than 75 percent say they do not believe that the Islamic State will create a caliphate, or government based on Islamic law.

These are among the findings from interviews done with 3,500 young Arabs in 14 nations. They were aged 18 to 24.

The interviews were done by ASDA’A Burson Marsteller, a public relations company. The research comes at a time European governments worry about radicalized young people joining the Islamic State and carrying out terrorist attacks.

Seventy-eight percent of young adults reject the Islamic State even if it “did not use so much violence.” Thirteen percent, down from 19 percent in 2015, say they would support Islamic State if it was less violent.

As to why some young people join the militant group, 24 percent said they believe it is because of a shortage of jobs. Seventeen percent say the support comes because some like the Islamic State’s view of Islam.

Hassan Hassan is an Islamic State expert at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, D.C. He offered his views on the survey and why young people continue to join the Islamic State.

“It did not simply invent the problems the responders identified as factors. “Put another way," (Islamic State) "is a symptom of a growing disease that needs to be tackled, and not just the disease itself,” he said in a statement.

Some other findings of the survey include:

More than half of Arab young adults said they believe that religion is too big an influence in the Middle East.
63 percent said they view the United States as an ally, 32 percent as an enemy. But in Iraq, just 6 percent of young Iraqis view the United States as an ally and 93 percent as an enemy.
Fewer than half the young Arabs, 44 percent, said they believe they can get good jobs in their countries. Only 2 percent of young people in Yemen say they can get good jobs. In Libya, the percentage is 7 percent.
Just 36 percent of young Arabs feel the Arab world is better off after the Arab Spring uprisings. That is down from 72 percent in 2012, at the height of the unrest.
I'm Bruce Alpert.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English.  Kathleen Struck was the editor.

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