• Cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo in Paris were attacked by Islamists on 7th January 2015 killing twelve people
• On 14 – 15th February in Copenhagen an Islamist targeted the cartoonist Lars Vilks
• Atheism UK commented about these atrocities  here, here and here
• Between 23rd January  and 20th February 2015, 1000 British Muslims were asked by COMRES what they thought about British Society and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad
• The poll asked British Muslims two questions:
  • 1)  ‘Do you agree or disagree with these eight statements about British society…? (Table 5)
  • 2) ‘Do you agree or disagree with these six statements about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad …?’ (Table 14)

Since Charlie Hebdo, debates about freedom of expression, fear of extremism and violence by Islamists – has been intense amongst the media.

On 25th February 2015 the BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme published a COMRES poll (1,2).  At 7.33am the Today programme (audio at 1:33:00, available for 30 days) said (3):

“a new BBC poll suggests an overwhelming majority of British Muslims oppose the use of violence against people publishing images of the Prophet Mohammed. A 1000 people of Muslim faith were surveyed in the weeks that followed the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. It also found that 1 in 4 Muslims have some sympathy with the motives behind the shootings.” (3)

The BBC analysed the results of the poll. (7)

My poll analysis is that whilst almost eight-out-of ten (78%) British Muslims agreed with the statement  “It is deeply offensive to me when images of the Prophet Mohammad are published”, one-in-five (20%) disagreed. (Table 15)

About 1 in 10 (11%) British Muslims agreed with the statement that ‘Organisations that publish images of the Prophet Mohammad deserve to be attacked’ but more than eight-out-of-ten (85%) disagreed.  (Table 16)

Two-thirds (68%) of British Muslims agreed that ‘Acts of violence against those who publish images of the Prophet Mohammad can never be justified’ – but a quarter (24%) disagreed with this statement. (Table 17)

A quarter (27%) of British Muslims agreed ‘I have some sympathy for the motives behind the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris’ – six-out-of-ten (62%) disagreed. (Table 18)

A third (32%) of British Muslims  agreed with the statement ‘I understand the motives of those who launch attacks in the name of Islam because the religion has been insulted’, but almost two-thirds (64%) disagreed. (Table 19)

A third (32%) agreed with the statement ‘I wasn’t surprised that the attacks in Paris happened’ whilst almost two-thirds (63%) disagreed. (Table 20)

———————

I decided not to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. This decision was upheld by Atheism UK Council at our January Skype meeting.

Had Atheism UK published the cartoons, was I right to be concerned about possible attacks or violence against Council members, our families and our members?

Was I right not to deeply offend most British Muslims or insult Islam by not publishing the cartoons?

Are there limits to freedom of expression? Should we self-censor material that could deeply offend Muslims or other religious people or insult religions? Or should we publish everything (whilst staying within UK laws)?

To stay within the law, to maintain good community relations whilst endorsing freedom of expression & speech; publishers must decide when speech or expressions are threatening (which can be prosecuted under The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006) (3) or insulting or abusive.  When is expression ridiculing, disrespectful, offensive or deeply offensive. (4)  When is expression hateful (6)?

How does this debate assist the Atheism UK objective: the ‘Advancement of Atheism’?

Chris Street

President, Atheism UK

********************

Tables 5, 14 – 20

Table 5

Question 1 asked ‘Do you agree or disagree with these statements about British society…?

The eight statements were:

1. I feel loyalty to Britain.
2. I feel disloyalty to Britain.
3. Western liberal society can never be compatible with Islam.
4. Muslims in Britain should always obey British laws.
5. The Muslim Council of Britain does a good job representing the values of Muslims.
6. I feel that most British people don’t trust Muslims.
7. Britain is becoming less tolerant of Muslims.
8. Prejudice against Islam makes it very difficult being a Muslim in this country.

Tables 6 – 13 (not shown) gave detailed responses by gender, age and geographical region.

click image for larger table

Table 14

Question 2 asked ‘Do you agree or disagree with these [six] statements about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad …?’ (Table 14)

click image for larger table

Details of responses by gender, age and geographical region are given in Tables 15 – 20 (see below).

Table 15

78% agreed and 20% disagreed with the statement that “It is deeply offensive to me when images of the Prophet Mohammad are published” (Table 15)

Table 16

11% agreed and 85% disagreed with the statement that ‘Organisations that publish images of the Prophet Mohammad deserve to be attacked’ (Table 16)

Table 17

68% agreed and 24% disagreed with the statement that ‘Acts of violence against those who publish images of the Prophet Mohammad can never be justified’. (Table 17)

Table 18

27% agreed and 62% disagreed with the statement that ‘I have some sympathy for the motives behind the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris’. (Table 18)

Table 19

32% agreed and 64% disagreed with the statement ‘I understand the motives of those who launch attacks in the name of Islam because the religion has been insulted’. (Table 19)

Table 20

32% agreed and 63% disagreed with the statement ‘I wasn’t surprised that the attacks in Paris happened’. (Table 20)

References

(1) Poll Methodology http://comres.co.uk/polls/bbc-radio-4-today-muslim-poll (accessed 26th February 2015)

(2) ComRes Full Poll Results, http://comres.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BBC-Today-Programme_British-Muslims-Poll_FINAL-Tables_Feb2015.pdf (accessed 26th February 2015)

(3) Today Programme, 25th February 2015 (accessed 26th February 2015)

(4) Hate speech laws in the United Kingdom, Wikipedia (accessed 31st January 2015)

(5) Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 (accessed 31st January 2015)

(6) Hate Speech Laws in UK  (accessed 31st January 2015)

(7) BBC Poll Analysis (accessed 26th February 2015)