How Tiny is the 'Tiny Minority'?
Gauging levels of support for violence inspired by Islamic teaching
One of the guaranteed responses after any high-profile act of terror inspired by Islam is the solemn reminder from a variety of media outlets that only a minority of Muslims are willing to kill for their faith, or support those who do.
This notion was powerfully challenged by the large crowds in many cities around the world who did not rush to the streets to condemn the genocidal barbarity of HAMAS but to show their support!
Even so, in the aftermath of smaller-scale terror attacks inspired by Islam we often hear the assertion that it was carried out by “lone wolves” with little connection to the wider Muslim community. Those who support such actions are, furthermore, dismissed as a ‘tiny minority’.
So, can we all stop worrying and dismiss violent jihad as merely a minority concern? All the evidence suggests that this would be a classic “head in the sand” response. Consider the following:
How do you define “minority”? One of the basic problems with the “tiny minority” defense is the fact that it does not take the varying levels of commitment in the Muslim community into account. There are millions of people who would self-identify as Muslim but who only have tenuous connections with Islam. This means that the term “Muslim” can equally apply to a completely Westernized person who prefers to be known as “Mo” and who tries to hide his love of bacon, or to an extremely devout person who feels physically sick if he is somehow prevented from doing one of the five daily prayers at the appointed time. Since “Mo” does not care all that much for Islam anyway (and sees it more as an element of the culture that he was brought up in), it can logically be assumed that jihad will not be very high on his personal agenda. Does this tell me anything about Islamic teaching, however? Hardly.
The point I am trying to make is that the “moderation” of many so-called moderate Muslims often consists of ignoring some of the troubling aspects of the Qur’an. It is because of this that surveys have consistently found that support for violent jihad rises in line with levels of commitment to Islam. In other words, the more devout a person is, the more likely he or she will be to take the Qur’an’s verses of violence seriously.
This is further confirmed by the fact that almost all “good boy/girl turned jihadi” profiles served up after Islamic terror attacks contain statements about the person becoming more devout (“He was just a regular guy but then started going to the mosque a lot” or “She used to like going to parties but then she took the veil and cut herself off from her friends”). So, the question must be asked whether the minority will still be as “tiny” if jihad supporters are considered as a percentage of those Muslims who take their faith very seriously instead of the Muslim population as a whole?
The minority may not be so “tiny” after all. Survey after survey has shown that substantial percentages of Muslims sympathize with the jihadist cause. A snapshot of such surveys (many more can be added) are presented below.
• An ICM poll conducted in February 2006 found that one-fifth of British Muslims have sympathy with the “feelings and motives” of the 7/7 London Underground bombers. The same survey found that 40% of respondents wanted to see sharia implemented in Britain.
• A 2007 Pew Research poll found that support for suicide bombings are three times more prevalent among Muslims who have a high degree of commitment to their faith compared to those with low levels of commitment. Overall, 26% of American Muslims under 30 supported suicide bombings.
• A Pew Global survey conducted across the Muslim world in 2013 found that only 57% of Muslims had an unfavorable view of Al Qaeda. The comparable figure for the Taliban is 51%.
• In one of the largest surveys ever conducted across the Muslim world, the Pew Research Center found that 76% of South-Asian Muslims and 56% of Egyptian Muslims advocate the killing of anyone who leaves the Islamic religion.
• A 2015 COMRES survey conducted on behalf of BBC Radio 4 found that 45% of British Muslims surveyed believed that clerics preaching violence against the West represent “mainstream Islam”. In the same survey, it was found that 27% of British Muslims openly support violence against cartoonists who draw Muhammad (the survey was conducted in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacres). Another 8% declined to give an opinion. This means that only 2 out of 3 of those surveyed would say that the killings were not justified.
• A U.S. Center for Security Policy survey conducted in June 2015 by The Polling Company Inc. found that 25% of Muslim Americans say that violence against Americans in the United States is justified as part of the “global jihad”. An almost similar percentage (24%) also believed that it was justified to use violence against those who give offense to Islam.
• In a poll conducted by Survation on behalf of the Sun newspaper, almost 20% of British Muslims expressed some sympathy for those who left the U.K. in order to fight for Islamic State in Syria.
• A Pew Research Center report published in December 2015 found that 40% of Muslims in Palestine, 39% in Afghanistan, 29% in Egypt and 26% in Bangladesh agree that violence against civilians in defense of Islam is sometimes justified. The same report also found that a clear majority of Muslims around the world would prefer to live under sharia law.
The research presented above makes for a disturbing read, especially when we consider that respondents will probably be inclined to hide or soften their adherence to controversial positions when polled. If we peg active supporters of violent jihad at 10% (which the surveys mentioned above would suggest is far too low), the resulting cohort cannot be described as “tiny” by any stretch of the imagination, as it would be 130,000,000 strong (based on a global Muslim population of 1.3 billion). That’s more than the entire population of all but a handful of countries!
If that many people are willing to take up arms for the sake of Islam (or materially support those who do), we as non-Muslims have a massive problem on our hands, and we will have to face up to it rather than live in denial.
For much more about the links between Islamic teaching and violence, please see my book ‘Nothing to do with Islam - Investigating the West’s Most Dangerous Blind Spot’.
Kind regards,
Peter
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