BBC News Arabic survey finds that since 2013, the number of Arabs identifying as “not religious” rose from 8 percent to 13 percent and yet Islamic mores and traditions remain entrenched.

Poll: ‘Honor killing’ more acceptable in Arab world than homosexuality

JNS, June 25, 2019:

BBC News Arabic survey finds that since 2013, the number of Arabs identifying as “not religious” rose from 8 percent to 13 percent.



According to a new in-depth survey of the Arab world, Arabs today are less religious compared to previous years, but still find “honor killings” more acceptable than homosexuality.

The survey, conducted for BBC News Arabic by the Arab Barometer research network across 10 countries and the Palestinian territories between late 2018 and spring 2019, consisted of more than 25,000 interviews.

Honor killings were considered acceptable by 27 percent of Algerians, while 26 percent found homosexuality acceptable. In Morocco, it was 25 percent for honor killings and 21 percent for homosexuality, while in the Palestinian territories it was 8 percent for honor killings and 5 percent for homosexuality.

On religion, since 2013, the number of Arabs identifying as “not religious” rose from 8 percent to 13 percent. Those under 30 showed the greatest increase, with 18 percent identifying as non-religious.

A majority were found to be accepting of a woman prime minister, with the exception being Algeria. But in the home, most said that husbands should always have the final say in family decisions, with the exception being Morocco, where less than half said so.

Only 12 percent viewed U.S. President Donald Trump positively, with Russian President Vladimir Putin garnering 28 percent and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan getting 51 percent.

The BBC noted that some countries asked that some of the questions be dropped from the survey.