The Sun today runs with an uncompromising front page, reporting the results of an exclusive Survation poll for the paper of British muslims (it polled a sample of 1,003 by phone):
Before we go further, a health warning: Manchester university research has shown that non-Muslims often give similar answers to Muslims about terrorism and related issues, which means we should be very careful about drawing conclusions from a poll without a control group.
First, that headline stat. Survation asked its respondents to answer which of a set of statements was closest to their view: "I have a lot of sympathy with young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria," "I have some sympathy with young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria," "I have no sympathy with young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria," or "don't know." Twitter has inevitably pointed out that an alternative take on this poll is to show that the vast majority of Muslims have no sympathy for the killers, and that's true. It's also worth noting that the majority of those counted as sympathetic have only "some sympathy," which could mean anything. But that isn't really how news works, and the one in five stat is striking. The Sun points out that it rises to almost one in four among 18-34 year old Muslims. As you can see from the chart above, though, it drops significantly among older people; only 13.7 per cent of Muslims aged 55 and over have any sympathy with fighters going to Syria.
Those criticising The Sun should note that the paper points out in its writeup that these figures show less support for such attacks than Sky News polling carried out before recent attacks in Paris and Tunisia.
A last point to make here is that "joining fighters in Syria" could also mean going to fight for the Free Syrian Army, rather than any of the various jihadi groups in the country.
Another striking stat, which it's worth David Cameron and other advocates of intervention in Syria taking a look at, is the result of Survation's question on the causes of IS terrorist attacks:
The most popular answer is that western foreign policy drives these atrocities, which lends some weight to the argument—made by Jeremy Corbyn, among others—that launching military action overseas can exacerbate the problem of home-grown terrorism. Anyone who does advocate overseas intervention should also address the question of how they will combat this perception among Muslims at home.
It's also interesting to note that young Muslims are less likely to blame western policy and more likely to blame the IS leaders themselves for these attacks than many of their older peers.
Two questions focus on the idea that Muslims and their leaders should condemn terror attacks—something many non-Muslims on the liberal left do not think is necessary.
Survation asked whether it is the responsibility of Muslims to condemn terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam, and also asked about whether the UK's Islamic leaders had publicly condemned IS too much, not enough or just right.
Both questions show that despite a significant minority who disagree with this approach, most British Muslims agree there should be some condemnation of attacks by the community. Some 66.4 per cent of respondents think that the UK's Islamic leaders—many of whom have roundly and repeatedly condemned IS—have either condemned the group the right amount or not enough. Only 7.8 per cent think they have condemned IS too much. A majority—50.8 per cent of Muslims—think it is their responsibility to condemn attacks, while 37.9 per cent think it is not.
Advocates of this approach should perhaps be concerned that 18-34 year olds are the only group among whom a minority think Muslims should condemn terror attacks—just 44.3 per cent.
Survation also dealt with the question of Muslims' fundamental identity: Here again, some reassuring news with a caveat. While the vast majority of Muslims feel their "British identity" is as important or more important than their Muslim identity, the young are least likely to feel like this.
You can see all the tables here. On the whole, they paint a picture of a British Muslim community which mostly feels every bit as appalled by recent IS atrocities as the general population (I assume; as I said, the survey isn't accompanied by a survey of overall British opinion). But younger Muslims on some measures seem marginally less sure in this than some of their older peers.
As with any paper's reporting of any poll, The Sun has picked a few stats to focus on, so what does the research as a whole tell us?Monday's Sun front page: 1 in 5 Brit Muslims' sympathy for jihadis #tomorrowspaperstoday#bbcpaperspic.twitter.com/vIlJidTHXt
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) November 22, 2015
Before we go further, a health warning: Manchester university research has shown that non-Muslims often give similar answers to Muslims about terrorism and related issues, which means we should be very careful about drawing conclusions from a poll without a control group.
First, that headline stat. Survation asked its respondents to answer which of a set of statements was closest to their view: "I have a lot of sympathy with young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria," "I have some sympathy with young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria," "I have no sympathy with young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria," or "don't know." Twitter has inevitably pointed out that an alternative take on this poll is to show that the vast majority of Muslims have no sympathy for the killers, and that's true. It's also worth noting that the majority of those counted as sympathetic have only "some sympathy," which could mean anything. But that isn't really how news works, and the one in five stat is striking. The Sun points out that it rises to almost one in four among 18-34 year old Muslims. As you can see from the chart above, though, it drops significantly among older people; only 13.7 per cent of Muslims aged 55 and over have any sympathy with fighters going to Syria.
Those criticising The Sun should note that the paper points out in its writeup that these figures show less support for such attacks than Sky News polling carried out before recent attacks in Paris and Tunisia.
A last point to make here is that "joining fighters in Syria" could also mean going to fight for the Free Syrian Army, rather than any of the various jihadi groups in the country.
Another striking stat, which it's worth David Cameron and other advocates of intervention in Syria taking a look at, is the result of Survation's question on the causes of IS terrorist attacks:
The most popular answer is that western foreign policy drives these atrocities, which lends some weight to the argument—made by Jeremy Corbyn, among others—that launching military action overseas can exacerbate the problem of home-grown terrorism. Anyone who does advocate overseas intervention should also address the question of how they will combat this perception among Muslims at home.
It's also interesting to note that young Muslims are less likely to blame western policy and more likely to blame the IS leaders themselves for these attacks than many of their older peers.
Two questions focus on the idea that Muslims and their leaders should condemn terror attacks—something many non-Muslims on the liberal left do not think is necessary.
Survation asked whether it is the responsibility of Muslims to condemn terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam, and also asked about whether the UK's Islamic leaders had publicly condemned IS too much, not enough or just right.
Both questions show that despite a significant minority who disagree with this approach, most British Muslims agree there should be some condemnation of attacks by the community. Some 66.4 per cent of respondents think that the UK's Islamic leaders—many of whom have roundly and repeatedly condemned IS—have either condemned the group the right amount or not enough. Only 7.8 per cent think they have condemned IS too much. A majority—50.8 per cent of Muslims—think it is their responsibility to condemn attacks, while 37.9 per cent think it is not.
Advocates of this approach should perhaps be concerned that 18-34 year olds are the only group among whom a minority think Muslims should condemn terror attacks—just 44.3 per cent.
Survation also dealt with the question of Muslims' fundamental identity: Here again, some reassuring news with a caveat. While the vast majority of Muslims feel their "British identity" is as important or more important than their Muslim identity, the young are least likely to feel like this.
You can see all the tables here. On the whole, they paint a picture of a British Muslim community which mostly feels every bit as appalled by recent IS atrocities as the general population (I assume; as I said, the survey isn't accompanied by a survey of overall British opinion). But younger Muslims on some measures seem marginally less sure in this than some of their older peers.
