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Muslims Worldwide Hate ISIS, Finds New Study

Berlin ISIS Protest
Montecruz Foto. is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Millions of Muslims hold unfavorable opinion of terrorist group ISIS.

In a Pew Research Center survey which considered opinions from countries whose populations were largely Muslim, it was found that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is a much detested organization, and this was even before the November 13 ISIS-executed terror attacks on Paris that killed 129 people and left more than 300 injured, a third of whom continue to be critical.

PEW Research Shows ISIS is a much detested organization by Muslims.[/tweetthis]

In neighboring Lebanon, a convincing 100% of the population surveyed had an unfavorable opinion of the terrorist outfit, while Jordan reported 94% and Palestine 84%. Indonesia, which has the world's highest concentration of Muslims, some 204 million in all, saw nearly 80% announcing their disdain for the ISIS. This actually amounts to around 150 million if the survey sample represents the entire population of the archipelago.

Pew Research Center
Turkey, considered by many to be moderate in its approach to Islam, had 73% who disapproved of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, another name for the ISIS. Two-thirds of those surveyed in Nigeria shared the same opinion and similar statistics were observed Malaysia, and Burkina Faso. While 60% in Senegal held a negative opinion of the Daesh, an acronym for Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya fi Al-Iraq wa Al-Sham, which is the terror group's name in Arabic, roughly the same percentage reported being receptive towards them instead in Pakistan.

Across the Atlantic, the sentiment is no different in the United States. They say that the atrocities of the ISIS, or ISIL, are not restricted to non-Muslim 'infidels' alone. Thousands of Sunni Muslims have been killed in the Middle East already, even though it has been only a couple of years ever since they established their geographical presence in the region. Imams have not been spared either – anyone who does not support them is simply executed. And all this is on top of their hatred towards Shia Muslims, the only other sect of Islam. Shiite mosques have been blown up, and the violence sees no signs of stopping.

Muslims' opposition to the ISIS isn't restricted to words of condemnation. The Hezbollah, an armed group consisting of Shia Muslims, is fighting them on the ground in Syria, as are the Shiite Kurds battling them in Iraq, regaining territory one town at a time. Nihad Awad of the U.S.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Hamas front, says that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is neither Islamic in its nature nor a state.

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