Posted on 07/23/2005 5:44:25 AM PDT by quesney
One in four Muslims sympathises with motives of terrorists
By Anthony King
Daily Telegraph
Filed: 23/07/2005
The group portrait of British Muslims painted by YouGov's survey for The Daily Telegraph is at once reassuring and disturbing, in some ways even alarming.
The vast majority of British Muslims condemn the London bombings but a substantial minority are clearly alienated from modern British society and some are prepared to justify terrorist acts.
Click to enlarge
The divisions within the Muslim community go deep. Muslims are divided over the morality of the London bombings, over the extent of their loyalty to this country and over how Muslims should respond to recent events.
Most Muslims are evidently moderate and law-abiding but by no means all are.
YouGov sought to gauge the character of the Muslim community's response to the events of July 7. As the figures in the chart show, 88 per cent of British Muslims clearly have no intention of trying to justify the bus and Tube murders.
However, six per cent insist that the bombings were, on the contrary, fully justified.
Six per cent may seem a small proportion but in absolute numbers it amounts to about 100,000 individuals who, if not prepared to carry out terrorist acts, are ready to support those who do.
Moreover, the proportion of YouGov's respondents who, while not condoning the London attacks, have some sympathy with the feelings and motives of those who carried them out is considerably larger - 24 per cent.
A substantial majority, 56 per cent, say that, whether or not they sympathise with the bombers, they can at least understand why some people might want to behave in this way.
YouGov also asked whether or not its Muslim respondents agreed or disagreed with Tony Blair's description of the ideas and ideology of the London bombers as "perverted and poisonous".
Again, while a large majority, 58 per cent, agree with him, a substantial minority, 26 per cent, are reluctant to be so dismissive.
The responses indicate that Muslim men are more likely than Muslim women to be alienated from the mainstream and that the young are more likely to be similarly alienated than the old.
However, there are few signs in YouGov's findings that Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are any more disaffected than their co-religionists from elsewhere.
The sheer scale of Muslim alienation from British society that the survey reveals is remarkable. Although a large majority of British Muslims are more than content to make their home in this country, a significant minority are not.
For example, YouGov asked respondents how loyal they feel towards Britain. As the figures in the chart show, the great majority say they feel "very loyal" (46 per cent) or "fairly loyal" (33 per cent) but nearly one British Muslim in five, 18 per cent, feels little loyalty towards this country or none at all.
If these findings are accurate, and they probably are, well over 100,000 British Muslims feel no loyalty whatsoever towards this country.
The proportion of men who say they feel no loyalty to Britain is more than three times the proportion of women saying the same.
Equally remarkable are YouGov's findings concerning many Muslims' attitudes towards Western society and culture.
YouGov asked respondents how they feel about Western society and how, if at all, they feel Muslims should adapt to it. A majority, 56 per cent, believe "Western society may not be perfect but Muslims should live with it and not seek to bring it to an end".
However, nearly a third of British Muslims, 32 per cent, are far more censorious, believing that "Western society is decadent and immoral and that Muslims should seek to bring it to an end".
Among those who hold this view, almost all go on to say that Muslims should only seek to bring about change by non-violent means but one per cent, about 16,000 individuals, declare themselves willing, possibly even eager, to embrace violence.
Yet again, far more men than women and far more young people than their elders evince this kind of hostility towards the world around them. In addition, tens of thousands of Muslims view the whole of Britain's political establishment with suspicion.
More than half of those interviewed, 52 per cent, believe "British political leaders don't mean it when they talk about equality. They regard the lives of white British people as more valuable than the lives of British Muslims".
Almost as many, 50 per cent, reckon the main party leaders are not being sincere when they say they respect Islam and want to co-operate with Britain's Muslim communities.
Despite Tony Blair's well-publicised efforts to reach out to Muslims, fewer than half of those interviewed, 42 per cent, approve of the way he has handled Britain's response to the July 7 events.
Many British Muslims are probably reluctant to give Mr Blair credit for anything at all following his complicity with America, as they see it, in launching the invasion of Iraq. Just more than half, 52 per cent, are impressed by the performance since the bombings of Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain. Some Muslims' discontent with Britain clearly extends to discontent with the existing moderate and pro-British Muslim leadership.
A cloud of suspicion also hangs over Britain's judicial system.
YouGov asked its Muslim respondents whether or not they thought anyone charged and taken to court in connection with the July 7 attacks would receive a fair trial. Only 37 per cent said yes. The rest reckon he or she would not or were doubtful that they would.
Despite these widespread doubts, a large majority of Britain's Muslims clearly believe the time has come when Muslims must shoulder their share of the responsibility for preventing and punishing terrorist crimes such as those in London.
As the figures in the chart show, roughly a third of Muslims reckon they should assume "a great deal" of the responsibility and another third reckon they should assume at least "some" of it.
Even more impressive in some ways is the fact that large numbers now say they are prepared to put their mouth where their feelings are.
As the figures in the chart show, almost three quarters of British Mulsims, 73 per cent, say they would inform the police if they believed that someone they knew or knew of might be planning a terrorist attack.
Nearly half, 47 per cent, say they would also go to the police if they believed an imam or other religious person was trying to radicalise young Muslims by preaching hatred against the West.
Not only that but 70 per cent of Muslims reckon they have a duty to go to the police if they "see something in the community that makes them feel suspicious".
Taken as a whole, the findings of YouGov's survey suggest that, although large numbers of British Muslims dislike British society and in some cases may be tempted to attack it, the great majority are loyal and law-abiding and are unlikely to provide the radicals with moral support, let alone safe havens.
YouGov interviewed 526 Muslim adults across Great Britain online between July 15 and yesterday. The data were weighted to reflect the composition of Britain's Muslim population by gender, age and country of birth.
YouGov abides by the rules of the British Polling Council.
# Anthony King is professor of government at Essex University.
Perhas there should be a general deportation of all Muslims EXCEPT for the apparently tiny minority who refuse to find any justification whatsoever for the bombers' motives, who publicly repudiate the verses of the Qu'ran and Hadith that give license to murder infidels, and who have demonstrated by clear and unequivocal actions that they will defend against radical islam the western nations that have taken them in as immigrants.
seems like alot to ask , NO?? the more I learn about islam , the more I see they cannot be trusted , why would I risk having my kids and grandkids cowering from the muzzies because I was unwilling to call a spade a spade? I could say "too bad" but it isn't,...the TRUTH will set you FRee , all of us should look at the history[not revisionist,now!] the HISTORICAL records of this aggressive death cult pseudo-religion
If the margin of error on this poll is 2-4 percent as is usual for polling, then add in the lying, you could have 100,000 jihadists in a dis-armed country! That's an awful lot of bombs!
Keep telling yourselves that. Bend over and accomodate them, that's the answer. Better yet, switch to Sharia law and let them rule you. That will make them feel muchmore welcome. Then, when they kill you off for not conforming to the Islamic way, what will you say then? Idiots.
One in four Muslims sympathises with motives of terrorists
That's 25%. How is that 'reasuring'? "Moderate" Muslims are ones who haven't acted on their religion's murderous cult's demands. Quit fooling yourselves. Other's who call themselves Muslims out of nessesity are really apostates to the cult, who the true believers think should be killed along with the rest of the infidels who won't bow to Islam. Quit fooling yourselves.
No Bakri, the root cause of the problem, and why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, is ISLAMIC TERRORISM.
Why isn't this guy arrested? Clearly he supports Islamic terrorism, and is a preacher of the "twisted" fundamentalism which propagates terrorism. Make good on your word Blair.
100,000 enemy troops have invaded. Better start killing them before they kill you Brits.
That has been taken out.
It seems Bush is not spreading democracy to these muslims countries, but MOBOCRACY. So, time to stop pretending we are on a noble quest!
Sorry, but you will have to find something else to blame Bush for.
Well, I don't know who is correct but check the date of the article. I read an article yesterday right here on FR that said after all the hubbub they agreed to change it.
If they intended to be exactly like us they would have simply adopted our constitution rather than hash out one of their own.
Considering that there are an estimated 1.2 billion muslims on the planet, I would guess the number of muslim crazies to be close to a billion or 5 out of every 6 muslims is a whack job. That's 1B that pose a threat to the other 4B infidels on the planet. The issue then is, should the 4B sit around waiting their turn to have their heads cut off OR should they take action to eliminate the threat??
As good a reason as any to institute an official profiling policy.
If that is what the majority of the people want and that is what they vote to have it certainly is democracy. No pretense about it.
Think it's any different here?
I don't. Except, from what I have seen, I would place it here at least 2 in 4, perhaps much higher.
One in four ADMIT to agreeing with terrorists. Since the cult instructs them to lie, I think it's reasonable to assume at LEAST 50% do-probably all, but lets say half.
So the government immediately announces it will deport half the Muslims in Britain. It can be the terrorist half if the 'good' ones turn them in, or the people will be picked randomly. Give them 48hrs, then start going door to door.
Time for talk is just about over.
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