Full Description
This book provides an in-depth analysis of public opinion patterns among Muslims, particularly in the Arab world. On the basis of data from the World Values Survey, the Arab Barometer Project and the Arab Opinion Index, it compares the dynamics of Muslim opinion structures with global publics and arrives at social scientific predictions of value changes in the region. Using country factor scores from a variety of surveys, it also develops composite indices of support for democracy and a liberal society on a global level and in the Muslim world, and analyzes a multivariate model of opinion structures in the Arab world, based on over 40 variables from 12 countries in the Arab League and covering 67% of the total population of the Arab countries. While being optimistic about the general, long-term trend towards democracy and the resilience of Arab and Muslim civil society to Islamism, the book also highlights anti-Semitic trends in the region and discusses them in the larger context of xenophobia in traditional societies. In light of the current global confrontation with radical Islamism, this book provides vital material for policy planners, academics and think tanks alike.
Contents
1.Introduction. Why Arab Spring Became Arab Winter?.- 2. The Middle East in the World System Context in Comparison with India and China: Some Backgrounds of Islamism in the MENA Region.- 3. Islamism and its Role in Modern Islamic Societies.- 4. Perturbations in the Arab World during the Arab Spring: A General Analysis.- 5.Arab Spring, Revolutions, and the Democratic Values.- 6.Background.- 7.Methods and Data for the Analysis.- 8.What We Really Know about Mass Support for Radical Islamism as the Ideology of Islamist Terrorism.- 9.The Arab World Between the Arab Spring and Support for Terrorism - What We Know from Opinion Research and What the Multivariate Can Tell Us.- 10. The Solitude of the West in the Fight Against Terror - What We Know from Opinion Research and What the Multivariate Analysis Can Tell Us.- 11. Islamism, Arab Spring and the Future of Democracy.- 12. Islamism, Arab Spring and the Future of Democracy.
