Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Poll Says Many British Muslim College Students Hold Islamist Views
Today's London Telegraph and London Times Online report that a YouGov poll for the Centre for Social Cohesion shows a wide cultural gap between Muslim and non-Muslim students at British universities. 40% of Muslim students say Shariah should be introduced into British law for Muslims. 57% agreed that Muslim members of the armed forces should be allowed to opt out of operations in Muslim countries. While 53% of Muslim students say that killing in the name of religion is never justified, 28% said it was acceptable if religion was under attack and 4% said it could be justified to promote or preserve religion. One-third of Muslim students supported the establishment of a world-wide caliphate. Among non-Muslim students, 55% thought that Islam was incompatible with democracy. 40% of Muslim students opposed Muslim men and women associating freely, and 25% of Muslim students said they had little respect for gays. The report titled "Islam on Campus" says the group Hizb ut-Tahrir is responsible for much of the radicalization of Muslim students on British campuses.