21Days 14Hours 26Minutes 19Seconds

Until Eid Starts
(subject to change)

26 November 2015

The Muslim Council of Britain today welcomed the admission by The Times newspaper that its headline “One in five British Muslims has sympathy for Isis”, was misleading in failing to reflect this. Yesterday, the Muslim Council of Britain wrote to the editor of the Times pointing out the willful misrepresentation of a poll conducted by its stablemate, The Sun newspaper.

Dr Shuja Shafi, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said: “I am glad that The Times newspaper has corrected an outrageous assertion that 1 in 5 Muslims had sympathy for ISIS. The paper went further than The Sun newspaper who also, wrongly, stated that 1 in 5 Muslims had sympathy for jihadis. In fact, the survey question asked whether the respondents had sympathy for foreign fighters. Thousands of people have complained to the Sun for this willful misrepresentation, and we hope that The Sun reflects upon its action. And while I welcome The Times’ correction, I fear the damage has already been done since the correction has had no where near the kind of prominence that the offending headline in the first place.”

See the MCB’s full letter to The Times below:

——

Sir,

You state that I questioned the wisdom of The Sun newspaper to conduct such polls so soon after the Paris attacks. However my central criticism was reserved for the newspaper’s willful misrepresentation of that poll, claimed on its front page headline that ‘1 in 5 British Muslims’ sympathy for jihadis’, a criticism that has also been made by the polling company itself. It is very disappointing that your newspaper misrepresents this further by stating in your headline ‘One in five British Muslims has sympathy for Isis’ (24 November).

In fact, the question asked by the poll centered on foreign fighters, not ISIS, and as you know, foreign fighters could also mean those fighting ISIS itself, as well as those not aligned to ‘jihadis’. However, we at the Muslim Council of Britain have cautioned against anyone going to Syria. This view was endorsed by the vast majority surveyed in that poll (71%), which your newspaper chose to overlook.

At these times of heightened crisis, we would urge all newspaper organisations to avoid fomenting further division through such headlines.

Yours,

Dr Shuja Shafi,
Secretary General,
Muslim Council of Britain

November 26, 2015 in MCB Updates
Ramadan 2024: Future First