According to a survey conducted by Policy Exchange, an independent British think tank, “There are concerning levels of favourable feelings towards proscribed terrorist organisations and extremist entities, among … British Muslims.”

Policy Exchange conducted a survey among British Muslims to get their views on a range of issues. Just over 1 000 British Muslims were surveyed.

One of the issues on which British Muslims were surveyed was whether they viewed a number of Islamic extremist groups positively or negatively.

Al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, and the Islamic State (ISIS) all had high net negative favourability ratings.

Forty-five percent of British Muslims viewed ISIS unfavourably while 16% viewed the terrorist group favourably (giving it a net unfavourability rating of 29), 43% viewed Al Qaeda unfavourably and 15% viewed it favourably (net unfavourability 28), while 42% viewed the Taliban unfavourably and 14% favourably (net unfavourability 28). The balance was made up of people who were unsure or had a neutral view.

Organisations that are playing active roles in the current Middle East conflict had lower unfavourability ratings, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite branch of the Iranian military, which acts as the Tehran regime’s ideological and military shock troops, having a net positive favourability rating. Twenty-three percent viewed it favourably and only 20% viewed it unfavourably, giving it a net positive favourability rating of three.

Concerningly, Hamas, the terrorist organisation that launched the grotesque attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, and which is a proxy of the Iranian regime, had a low unfavourability rating. Only 28% viewed it unfavourably while 25% viewed it favourably, giving it a net unfavourability rating of three.

British Muslims were also asked their views on two other Iranian proxy terrorist organisations: Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen.

Twenty-nine percent of British Muslims viewed Hezbollah unfavourably while 17% had a favourable view, for a net negative favourability rating of 12. The Houthis had a net unfavourability rating of two, with 22% viewing them unfavourably and 20% favourably.

Policy Exchange noted: “There are concerning levels of favourable feelings towards proscribed terrorist organisations and extremist entities among the British Muslim respondents surveyed. While 28% have an unfavourable view towards Hamas, a quarter – 25% – have a favourable one. In the analysis, the IRGC – which has the central responsibility of protecting the Shi’ite military-theocratic dictatorship in Iran – has a net favourability rating of plus three. While the plurality of British Muslim respondents has an unfavourable view of ISIS and AlQaeda, around one in seven have a favourable view of the two terrorist organisations (16% and 15%, respectively).”