Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Islam report

  • 32% of Muslim students in Britain believe that killing in the name of Islam can be justified.
  • 40% support sharia law for Muslims in Britain and 33% support a global Caliphate based on sharia law.
  • 40% believe it is unacceptable for Muslim men and women to mix freely.
  • 57% said that British Muslim servicemen should be allowed to opt out of taking part in military operations in Muslim countries.

But more positively:

  • 68% believe Islam and Western democracy are compatible
  • 89% support equal treatment for men and women.
  • Only 15% said they understood Islam as a religion and Islamism as a political project to be one and the same.
I'm not sure whether this is worse or better than I thought. The idea that radical Islamists are a tiny minority of Muslims seems disproved. It should be remembered that a lot of Muslim students are not British, but foreign students from much more backward conservative countries. The full report is available here (not a pdf link now).