Brexit voters turned their backs against middle east
LONDON: The majority of Britons have limited knowledge about the Arab world and many have little or no interest in learning more, a survey has found.
Eight in 10 Brits polled said they know little or nothing about the Arab world, while 52 percent of those who voted to leave the EU said they would never visit the Middle East, according to an Arab News/YouGov survey of over 2,000 UK citizens.
The poll, conducted in August, found that half of those who voted to remain in the bloc said they were interested in learning more about the Arab world, compared to just 25 percent of “leave” voters.
Stefan Sperl, senior lecturer in Arabic at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), said “a new kind of inward-looking mentality” had been reinforced by the vote to leave the EU.
“Brexit is a symptom of this,” he said. “The new nationalism is not linked to Britain, you find it everywhere, this is a globalized phenomenon we are facing.”
Many of those polled in the “UK attitudes toward the Arab world” survey subscribed to certain stereotypes, associating Arab culture with strict gender roles (52 percent) extremism and violence (23 percent and 14 percent respectively).
“Media reporting focuses more on these issues and much less on real day-to-day life in these countries. We are facing the problem that whatever is newsworthy is always more negative,” said Sperl.
“When it comes to the position of women especially, the image conveyed is too influenced by the negative,” he added. “In some Arab countries, women are a major part of the workforce and fully engaged in public life but these issues are much less known.”
“For people whose knowledge of the Middle East derives from what they see in the news, these points will be paramount.”
Eight in 10 Brits polled said they know little or nothing about the Arab world, while 52 percent of those who voted to leave the EU said they would never visit the Middle East, according to an Arab News/YouGov survey of over 2,000 UK citizens.
The poll, conducted in August, found that half of those who voted to remain in the bloc said they were interested in learning more about the Arab world, compared to just 25 percent of “leave” voters.
Stefan Sperl, senior lecturer in Arabic at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), said “a new kind of inward-looking mentality” had been reinforced by the vote to leave the EU.
“Brexit is a symptom of this,” he said. “The new nationalism is not linked to Britain, you find it everywhere, this is a globalized phenomenon we are facing.”
Many of those polled in the “UK attitudes toward the Arab world” survey subscribed to certain stereotypes, associating Arab culture with strict gender roles (52 percent) extremism and violence (23 percent and 14 percent respectively).
“Media reporting focuses more on these issues and much less on real day-to-day life in these countries. We are facing the problem that whatever is newsworthy is always more negative,” said Sperl.
“When it comes to the position of women especially, the image conveyed is too influenced by the negative,” he added. “In some Arab countries, women are a major part of the workforce and fully engaged in public life but these issues are much less known.”
“For people whose knowledge of the Middle East derives from what they see in the news, these points will be paramount.”
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