A new poll [PDF] released late Friday by the Arab American Institute shows that American views on Egypt and on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood have plummeted to their lowest in at least twenty years:

For most of the past two decades, American opinion of Egypt has been overwhelmingly favorable. In the 1990’s attitudes were almost four to one favorable—with positive ratings in the 60% range. Today, however, only 36% of Americans have a favorable view of the country. And, in our most recent poll, almost one-half of Americans have a negative view of Egypt, a significant rise even since our January 2012 poll…. This difficulty becomes even more pronounced after an examination of the responses to our open-ended question: “what is the first thought that comes to mind when you think of Egypt.” In response, almost one-half of those who have favorable views of Egypt can only think of something related to its ancient history, giving responses like “pyramids,” “the Sphinx,” and “King Tut.” Among those who have unfavorable views of Egypt, on the other hand, almost all of the top-of-mind responses focus on the current instability, using words like “dangerous,” “chaos,” “trouble,” “a huge mess,” “unrest,” and “war.”

Respondents held largely negative views of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked government of Mohamed Morsi: 53 percent believe that the Muslim Brotherhood is not committed to democracy, 32 percent are less likely to visit Egypt while it is ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood, and almost half of Americans – 47 percent – think that the U.S. should cut off aid to Egypt as long as the Muslim Brotherhood is in power.

Morsi’s administration has seen its popularity plummet inside Egypt as well. The erosion in political legitimacy began as a reactoin to political power grabs and to the controversial passage of a new constitution grounded in Islamic law. Upticks in sectarian violence and a stalled economic recovery have deepened the political crisis.

Egyptian officials have responded by among other things arresting government critics.

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