UK Muslims back Blair's bid to throw out fanatics

This headline is blared (pun intended) all over the news today. Here is what Scotland on Sunday reports.

THE majority of British Muslims back Tony Blair's plans to throw religious fanatics out of the country, a poll has revealed.

Almost two-thirds of Muslims said they supported moves to deport extremists who preach messages of hate.

And there is even more startling results.

Nine out of 10 of those questioned also said they would inform police if they suspected a fellow Muslim was planning a terror attack. But 5% said they would not tell anyone.

The poll also revealed that most Muslims believe they must play a key role in rooting out Islamic extremists.

Around two-thirds said their community bore "a lot" of responsibility in stamping out religious fanaticism. But 19% said they should only shoulder "a little" of the responsibility, while 9% denied they had any duty to stop extremism.

I was stunned when I read these statistics because they run counter to almost everything I've read to date. They just didn't make sense to me. Then I read this:

The poll of 500 Muslims was carried out at the start of the month by telephone.

I'm not a big fan of polls in the first place, but 500 out of the many millions of Muslims in Britain just doesn't sound like a good poll to me.

I hope it's true but I don't put much faith in this poll.

Watch for the Muslim Council of Britain to denounce this poll.
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