JEDDAH: Donald Trump may have riled the people of Arab world, but there’s at least one issue on which people of the region can agree with the US presidential candidate — abortion.

The Arab News/YouGov US election MENA poll, published this week, showed a general dissatisfaction with both Trump and election rival Hillary Clinton — although the latter candidate proved significantly more popular.

But of all the policy statements the 3,017 poll respondents were questioned on, Donald Trump’s pro-life stance proved one of the most appealing among people in the Arab world.

Almost nine in 10 of the poll respondents said that abortion is never permissible, apart from in exceptional circumstances. Only 11 percent believe it to be a citizen’s right, the poll found.

For some commentators this is an illustration of the how the historic conservatism of the Republican Party — despite its sometimes less-than-conservative presidential nominee — has resonated with Arab-Americans.

Columnist, analyst and political commentator Hisham Melhem, a veteran when it comes to covering US elections, said that the conservative nature of the Grand Old Party has historically been of appeal to Arab-Americans.

“Many Arab-Americans have been traditionally Republicans but not just because of their opposition to abortion,” said Melhem.

“Arab-Americans are mostly conservatives — socially and culturally. The early Lebanese and Syrian immigrants ran small businesses and believed in economic entrepreneurship, and agreed with the Republicans in their demands for lower taxes.”

Despite this the current Republican frontrunner has scant appeal among both Arab-American voters and citizens of the Middle East.

The Arab News/YouGov US election MENA poll found that 78 percent of people living in this region believe Clinton would be better for the Arab world if elected as president, versus just 22 percent for Trump.

A separate survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, found that 72 percent of Muslim voters in the US will back Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 poll.

Six in 10 of the respondents to the CAIR poll said that the Republican Party was unfriendly toward Muslims, compared to 51 percent in 2012.

Despite this, commentators say that the conservative stance held by many Muslim Americans endures.

“It’s issue-related — I don’t think you can divide it by pro-Republican or pro-Democratic on the issue of abortion,” Ziad Asali, president and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, told Arab News.

“Muslims in general are conservative people, regardless of the degree of their religiosity. It’s a conservative, traditional culture.

“It has been changing over decades... But the sentiment of the public is still conservative on social issues, as related to abortion, or gender equality, and issues of that nature. So it’s not surprising that they would like to hear someone would be against abortion.”