More than 75 per cent of young Arabs reject Islamic State, yet chronic unemployment has bolstered ISIS' recruitment, according to a new poll.
The 2016 Arab Youth Survey, which interviewed 3,500 16-24-year-olds from 16 countries, found that just 13 per cent of Arab youths said they would support ISIS, even if it reduced its use of violence. This is down five per cent from 2015.
Half (50 per cent) saw ISIS as the biggest problem facing the Middle East, compared to 37 per cent last year. Another 52 per cent believed that religion played too large a role in the region.
The survey found that it is not the ideology of ISIS that is drawing recruits, so much as economic stability in half of the countries surveyed, where long term unemployment is widespread.
One in four 15-24-year-olds are unemployed across the Arab world – the highest youth unemployment figure in the world, according to the World Bank – and the International Labour Organisation predicts there are up to 75 million young people out of work.
In 2011, just after the start of the Arab Spring, 92 per cent of Arab youth said "living in a democracy" was their highest priority. The eighth annual survey reveals that stability has become a higher desire than democracy among youths in 2016.
More than half (53 per cent) now believe that stability is more important than promoting democracy.
Just 36 per cent thought the Arab world is better off after the Arab Spring, down from 72 per cent in 2012.
The Arab Youth Survey 2016 was conducted by international polling firm Pen Schoen Berlan for Asda's Burson-Marstellar. The countries surveyed were: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.
