doctrine, it is reasonable to assume that the majority would
share a uniform commitment to the ideology, with fringe
interpretations being confined to minorities.
In 2016, at the height of the negative media coverage
on the atrocities being carried out by the Islamic State in
Syria, a survey of British Muslims found that when it came
to questions about support for the Caliphate/Islamic State,
7% of the Muslims surveyed said they supported the
Caliphate, whilst only 2% of a control group said they
supported the Caliphate.^260 However, we can be fairly sure
that the number of Muslims supporting the Caliphate is far
higher, since 14% of Muslims responded to the question
with “donʼt know”, whilst no more than 1% of the control
group responded that way.^261 This is a very strong indicator
that Muslims in Britain have learned that it is ill-advised to
tell a stranger certain opinions. It is thus likely that the
number of Muslims in this group who support the Caliphate
is closer to at least 20% (we cannot know how many of
those who expressed opposition to the Caliphate were
choosing the inverse of their real opinion i.e. saying they
opposed the Caliphate when they really support it). It is far
more likely that Muslims would have allegiance to the
Caliphate and knowledge of its importance to Islam than
would the Kuffar. There are many other indicators that
Muslims in this survey were deceiving those running the
survey.^262
That surveys of political opinions are going to
significantly underestimate opinion which is not considered
mainstream^263 should give people in the West a great deal to