“This survey shows that public awareness of the Arab world is lacking, with 81 percent of the public claiming to have either limited or no knowledge of the Arab world. The Middle East and North Africa is a vital region for our geostrategic interests, presenting policymakers with challenging questions every day. As touched on in this survey, these range from whether the government should recognize the state of Palestine, conduct military operations against ISIS (Daesh) in Iraq and Syria, how to support integration of Arab communities here in the UK, and how we deal with Islamophobia. For a democratic society it is important that these topics are openly discussed and decisions are taken on the basis of informed debate. It is also important that policymakers have a better understanding of the views of their own constituents on these issues and so I welcome the efforts taken to produce this poll.”

• For full report and related articles please visit: How Brits view Arab world