One third of British muslims "Have some sympathy for the motives of Hebdo killers"

[MicrosoftBob]

What's there to sympathise with in their motives?

Plenty if you're a nonce...

[suityou01]

What's there to sympathise with in their motives?

Nonces or Islamic extremists?

[NickFitz]

27% say straight away it's ok another 10% refuse to distance themselves

BBC News - Most British Muslims 'oppose Muhammad cartoons reprisals'

"Have some sympathy" does not mean "Says it's OK".

Also, lumping in the "Don't knows" and "Refused to answer" with those who "Have some sympathy" shows that you are either fundamentally ignorant of the way opinion polls are conducted or - which I think is more likely - an outright bigot.

[xoggoth]

Even if "some sympathy" does not mean they would actually do it themselves, it does suggest that they may be reluctant to cooperate with the police in preventing others from doing so and that in itself raises the risk to us and makes tackling terrorism much more expensive.

What it certainly tells us is that the repeated mantra about terrorism having nothing to do with Islam is a nonsense, it is part of the normal distribution of belief in a political creed.

PS I see it says further down:

If someone I knew from the Muslim community was planning an act of violence I would report them to the police - 94% agree

Muslim clerics who preach that violence against the West can be justified are out of touch with mainstream opinion - 49% agree

So 6% would do nothing if they knew of a terrorist plot. Can you imagine what would be said if 6% of white Brits were willing to turn a blind eye to far right plots against minorities?

[d000hg]

Hmm, I don't think that's fair xog. I think it's likely that any community would have more sympathy for terrorists representing their own people than the rest of society would. EDL/BNP types causing trouble for instance - the Muslim world would 99.99% decry this but down the pub you'd find Englanders (not a majority but you'd find them) saying "of course that's not right, but you can see why they were doing it".

[mudskipper]

Having some sympathy with the motives, is not necessarily the same as having some sympathy with the violence.

[xoggoth]

It is not about interpretations. You appear to be missing the main quote which is pretty clear:

If someone I knew from the Muslim community was planning an act of violence I would report them to the police - 94% agree

6% would or might do nothing to stop a terrorist atrocity??? That is a pretty significant figure for something of that nature.

[xoggoth]

think it's likely that any community would have more sympathy for terrorists representing their own people than the rest of society would

Indeed. That is why encouragement of multiculturalism is such an idiocy.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Nonces or Islamic extremists?

I do hate that word. It's a meaningless throw-away word, used as a smear without having to actually articulate anything smear-worthy.

But that aside, believing in something with no reason to suppose that it's likely to be true, is in itself extreme by any sensible definition of the word. The rest is all just personal taste.
How is believing some made up stuff that a made-up god commanded you to do any anmore 'extreme' than believing in a made-up god in the first place?

I'd be ok with 'fundamentalist' to describe that kind of muslim. And I like that too because 'fundamental' doesn't imply bad - which means that one has to actually articulate exactly what is bad, or accept the fact that Islam is inherently evil to begin with, and that it's only the less fundamental (i.e. more compromising) believers that can be considered less evil - rather than supposing that Islam is not inherently evil that it's only perversion by 'extremists' which is evil.

[xoggoth]

accept the fact that Islam is inherently evil

Irrational is a better word. I'd say you have to believe in god for the word evil to have any meaning. Things that happen in the world are down to human nature and human nature is much as that of social animals in general. Chimps, Meerkats, Lions etc are also fond of driving out or killing those of other tribes or who threaten their power.

If we are worse, that's down to intelligence and technology. Chimps don't have guns and bombs. (Yet)