Obama and the Muslim World
In the past six months, several polling firms have asked citizens of the rest of the world about their preferences in the American presidential election. The consensus, perhaps unsurprisingly, is an overwhelming one. The Gallup World Poll found voters in 71 out of 73 countries preferred Barack Obama; the BBC found support for Obama in all of the 22 countries that it surveyed.
But recently, Obama’s support has been at its lowest in Arab and Islamic countries, where most respondents indicated that they expect American relations with the world to remain unchanged. Conventional wisdom among many Arab and Muslim commentators suggests that Obama’s foreign policy will be a continuation of the last eight years.