Poll: Obama's ranking in Muslim world slides over Mideast

Latest update 10:31 19.06.10

 

Poll: Obama's ranking in Muslim world slides over Mideast

 

According to Pew Research Center global poll, Muslim world support of Obama drops drastically, most countries do not support military action against Iran.
By Haaretz Service

 

Global public opinion of United States President Barack Obama's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the lowest rated topic among all other global issues, according to a new poll.

 

The Pew Research Center poll collected data from more than 25,000 respondents in 22 countries, out of which only France, Nigeria and Kenya thought favorably of Obama's actions relating to the Middle East dispute.

 

This is in contrast to the general outcome of the poll which showed that Obama has maintained general popularity in Western countries, especially over his handling of the global economic crisis.

 

According to the Pew Global Attitudes surveys, the levels of confidence and approval in Egypt have fallen from 41 percent to 31 percent, the lowest rates marked in Egypt since 2006.

 

The same drop has been noted in Turkey, after the support was surprisingly low in 2009 already, and now slipped from 33 percent to 23 percent supporters, the poll indicated. In 2009 only 13 percent of Pakistani Muslims expressed confidence in Obama, yet this initially low number has dropped even further to only 8 percent this year.

 

Although the Muslim world generally favors Obama over former U.S. President George Bush, the significant drop is a concern to the U.S., especially in light of the continuing Iranian threat, the poll concluded.

 

Another worrying figure showed a rise in Egypt in support of the belief that suicide bombing is often justifiable, rising from 15 percent last year, to 20 percent in the 2010 poll.

 

Global opinion of the war in Afghanistan remained largely unpopular, however, as many as half of the countries polled were in favor of the U.S. activity relating to Iraq and Iran, the poll showed.

 

According to the poll there was widespread agreement opposing Iran's nuclear program, however, the U.S. was the only country likely to support military action as preemptive action against Iran's nuclear activity.

 

Most countries were favorable of Obama's climate change efforts.