New Survey: Insecurity, Xenophobia Extremely High in Iraq

New survey data finds the Iraqi public demonstrates the highest levels of intolerance of foreigners and other social out-groups out of 80 countries for which data is available, along with extraordinarily high levels of ethnic solidarity. The implications for the future of Iraq include a set of direct challenges to the emergence of stable democracy as well as the possibility that a restoration of order and security could reverse these trends over time. The analysis is based on surveys conducted in Iraq in 2004 and 2006 as part of the World Values Survey.

The research findings appear in an article coauthored by Ronald Inglehart (University of Michigan), Mansoor Moaddel (Eastern Michigan University) and Mark Tessler (University of Michigan), entitled "Xenophobia and In-Group Solidarity in Iraq: A Natural Experiment on the Impact of Insecurity." The article appears in the September 2006 issue of Perspectives on Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association. It is online at: /imgtest/PerspectivesSep06_Inglehart.pdf

In addition to recent terrorism and the instability following the 2003 invasion the authors consider the impact of Saddam Hussein's repressive rule, which differentially affected ethnic groups in Iraq. Broadly speaking, "the Arab regions of Iraq show levels of xenophobia that are almost twice as high as those found in the Kurdish region"--even as the Kurds still show "one of the world's highest levels of xenophobia" compared to other countries.

Since 9/11 thousands of lives have been lost to terrorist attacks around the world. More than half these deaths have been in Iraq, leading to "widespread feelings that life has become unpredictable and society is falling apart" as well as "a severe sense of existential insecurity" on the part of the Iraqi public. Accordingly, 59% of all Iraqis strongly agree that life in Iraq is unpredictable and dangerous today.

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_42959.shtml

Link to study: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=466971

It must be a meme put out by the globalizers.

Bigot.


Pretty much the same thing, but sounds nicer.

jihadists are foreigners. There are also a lot of foreigners from a certain Western country associated with much of the violence in the country. Given all of the violence in Iraq, it is not too surprising that there is a widespread distrust of foreigners.

supporting armed groups that are imposing Extreme Islamic Law on them in the South.

The Kurds don't like the Iranians or the Turk's that are bombing their towns to the North and looking at their oil fields with hungry eyes.

If anyone has a reason to hate and destrust foreigners its Iraqis.

American-style democracy to Iraq :sarcasm: