Muslim youths regard Daesh, Qaeda anti-Islam: Poll

The results of a new opinion poll indicate that most Arab Muslim youths view the violent actions of Takfiri terror groups such as Daesh and al-Qaeda as a distortion of Islamic teachings.

The poll, which was conducted by the Zogby Research Services in October and November 2015, surveyed 5,374 young Muslim men and women, aged 15 to 34, in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and the occupied Palestinian territories.

“At least three-quarters of millennial respondents in all countries surveyed” said groups like Daesh and Al-Qaeda “are either a complete perversion of Islam’s teachings or mostly wrong,” the polling firm said.

The study also found out that many millennials blamed the rise of extremist groups on corruption and “corrupt, repressive, and unrepresentative governments.”

Over 90 percent of respondents in Morocco and the UAE described both Daesh and al-Qaeda a “complete perversion of Islam,” an idea shared by 83 percent of respondents in Egypt and more than 60 percent in Bahrain and Jordan.

More than 55 percent of respondents in the occupied Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia also maintained that the extremist groups are distorting Islam’s teachings.

The polling firm’s chief James Zogby also added that in most countries the majority of respondents believed that religious discourse must “be made more relevant.”

Daesh terrorists, some of whom were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

Al-Qaeda is also a terror group that has carried out many attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries across the globe. The group is held responsible for instigating sectarian violence among Muslims.