ONE in five British Muslims sympathises with jihadists, claimed a headline in the Sun, a British tabloid. The number referred to a poll, taken in the wake of the attacks in Paris, which in fact suggested that 20% of Muslim respondents felt “some” or “a lot” of sympathy for “young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria.” Critics of what they judged a deliberate misrepresentation of Muslim feelings towards Islamic State (IS) quickly set up a Twitter hashtag, #1in5Muslims, that generated a torrent of tweets attacking the Sun. A typical example: “#1in5Muslims have to hear this BS all the time.”
