Spinning the Populus survey

“A Populus poll published in the Times yesterday found that 13% of British Muslims in the survey regarded the London bombers as ‘martyrs’. While that in no way means that 13% of Muslims in Britain approve of the bombings, the more telling finding was that 87% neither sympathised with nor approved of the attacks. But this side of the story got buried – such spin leaves both Muslims and non-Muslim with virtually nowhere to go.”

Anas Altikriti in the Guardian, 5 July 2006

Update:  Bob Churchill has emailed us pointing out that the Times-ITV-Populus survey “is deeply paranoid, and that coverage of it has been deeply flawed and misrepresents the answers given…. The media are widely misrepresenting the results, as if the figure of 13% who say the 7/7 bombers were ‘martyrs’ meant that 13% of Muslims agreed with the attacks, and that’s not only unwarranted but I believe other results in the survey stand firmly against such a conclusion.”

He makes the same point on his blog (see here).