No, one in five British Muslims do not support Isis
The Sun newspaper’s Monday front page leads with the claim that one in five British Muslims have some sympathy with people travelling abroad to fight on the side of jihadis in Syria.
There are some very big problems with this story and the way it has interpreted a poll.
Yes indeed – for example, the poll does not mention jihadis but asks whether respondents have “sympathy” with young Muslims who go to join “fighters” in Syria. “Fighters” could include, for example, Kurds who are fighting against the terrorists. Alas, the poll is too vague to make that distinction.
“Sympathy”, as the article states, is a very broad term and does not necessarily imply full-blooded support. People who say they have sympathy with something might be saying they understand why someone has come to do something, even if they think it is wrong.
Look at the “international cycle of stupidity” that This Blog publicised a couple of days ago.
See the part that says “The behaviour of the allies angers the people whose lives have been destroyed” and the next part, saying “Some of these angry people are radicalised by extremist groups”? This writer has sympathy for people in that position – although as everybody knows, I do not condone violence in any way.
And there are problems with the poll’s methodology – it asks whether people have “a lot” of sympathy or “some” when it could just ask for a “yes/no” answer to the question, “Do you sympathise?” Any poll is likely to see a disproportionate number of votes for a moderate (in the dictionary meaning of the term, rather than that being used by Labour Party right-wingers) choice and this inflates the apparent number of sympathisers.
But perhaps the biggest problem with the poll – and the part that marks it out as more of the usual Sun silliness – is the fact that non-Muslims would provide similar responses if you asked them the same questions.
Meanwhile, hate crimes against innocent Muslims in the UK have increased by 300 per cent since the Paris attacks – mostly against girls and women wearing traditional Islamic clothing – perhaps because they are the easiest to pick out and the least likely to fight back.
The Sun‘s poll report seems likely to increase such crimes.
But then, we knew that already.
Look at the increase in hate crime against the disabled that has been fuelled by unsympathetic media reports.
Source: No, one in five British Muslims do not support Isis | UK Politics | News | The Independent
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
If it sells papers never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
Vox Pop surveys are silly as they are never statistically representative.
Surely the morons at the Sun would have interpreted this as 4 out of 5 Muslims do support Isis.
What do the editors think this is going to achieve. Unless of course they are suggesting we set up concentration camps for 20% of Muslims in this country. Don’t adhere to these Nazi propogandist lies.
I’m afraid you might be literally true there, Dorian. Donald Trump, who is now the leading Republican presidential candidate in the US, has said he wants Muslims registered and made to keep some form of identification. People have drawn the entirely correct parallels with the way Jews and the other enemies of the Nazis were forced to wear identification badges during the Third Reich. This is how it all begins.
And once they’ve taken away all the Muslims for ‘resettlement in the east’, how long before they start clamping down and taking Left-wingers into ‘protective custody’.
Chilling.
I PROTEST!
In the strongest possible terms, I protest the use of the word ‘newspaper’ to describe the S*n.
I quite understand and agree, but I’m sorry to say it was the Independent making that suggestion and there was nothing I could do about it without doctoring the quote.
The Sun really is the pits as far as mainstream trash goes, but even this engineering of anti Islam feelings surely should receive open criticism and condemnation from the PM. No? Right, so his message of unifying all the peoples is just bs, as usual.
What do you expect from a tory rag, complete and utter bull for the idiot tory voters, I don’t even call it the Sun, I call it what it is, the Scum, for that is what it is and what their readers are!
I urge all readers of this blog to sign the petition at https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Rt_Hon_Jeremy_Wright_QC_MP_Attorney_General_charge_The_Sun_with_incitement_under_S22_of_the_Public_Order_Act_1986/?cdJdUbb calling for the Sun to be charged with incitement of racial or religious hatred.