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Britain
Over a quarter of British Muslims have sympathy for the Charlie Hebdo terrorists.
2015-02-26
[Telegraph] That is far too many -- Just because you wouldn't personally go out and murder people, it doesn't make you moderate. We cannot turn a blind eye to the fair-weather supporters of terrorism.

This morning the BBC published details of a major poll of the attitudes of Britain's Muslims. The headline on the front of the BBC website linking to the research states: "Muslims 'oppose cartoon reprisals'". This of course relates to attitudes within the Muslim community towards the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks.

It's a reassuring headline. It's also wrong. Many Muslims - a majority - do indeed utterly oppose the murderous killings in Paris. But a very, very large number of Muslims don't. Presented with the statement "I have some sympathy for the motives behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris", 27 seven percent agreed with the statement. A further 2 per cent refused to answer the question. And an additional eight percent said they were unsure whether they had some sympathy or not.

That is a shocking figure. And an utterly shaming one for Britain's Muslim community.
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We are going to have to start to reassess what we mean by "moderate Islam". At the moment, we essentially define a moderate Muslim as any Muslim who doesn't go around blowing things up, or who doesn't go round overtly advocating other people should blow things up. It's ludicrously simplistic, sickeningly patronising, and actually represents a form of inverted racism.

More importantly, it also has the practical effect of marginalising and undermining the significant number of genuinely moderate Muslims who want nothing to with the "I wouldn't have done it myself, but..." Charlie Hebdo apologists within their community.

If you think the Paris killings were justified - in any way - then you're not a moderate. By definition, you're an extremist.
Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418

#3  From my experience their is a major problem in the Pakistani community re extremism.
Posted by: paul   2015-02-26 06:52  

#2  the other 3/4 studied Shakespeare?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2015-02-26 05:53  

#1  I don't know if I agree. "I have some sympathy for the motives" does not actually mean you support the attacks at all. It means Charlie Hebdo pissed you off. Nothing more and nothing less.

I also think that the number if probably higher than a quarter but few are dumb enough to honestly fill out this kind of poll.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2015-02-26 00:10  

00:01