April 24, 2015
An Egyptian court this week handed down the first guilty verdict and sentencing to ousted President Mohamed Morsi for his role in the arrest and torture of protesters in 2012. American opinions of Egypt’s relationship with the United States haven’t changed, but voters are slightly more confident about the future of Egypt’s democracy than they were just after the violence there reached its peak.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 34% of Likely U.S. Voters think Egypt is likely to become a free, democratic and peaceful nation over the next several years. That’s up slightly from 29% in December and in August of 2013, following widespread violence during the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood president. In February 2011 just after the overthrow of longtime President Hosni Mubarak, 54% showed this level of optimism for the North African country.
Fifty-one percent (51%) now say it’s unlikely Egypt will become a free, democratic and peaceful nation anytime soon, down from 55% in the previous survey. These findings include six percent (6%) who say it’s Very Likely Egypt will reach this goal and nine percent (9%) who say that’s Not At All Likely. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 21-22, 2015 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.