A recent Al-Jazeera Arabic online poll shatters the dominant narrative that the Islamic State enjoys the support of only an isolated fraction of Arab Sunnis. Even considering the demonstrated online mobilisation of Islamic State supporters, it is sobering that 46,060 people (accounting for 81 percent of poll respondents) voted “Yes” in response to the question “Do you consider the Islamic State’s advances in Iraq and Syria in the interest of the region?”
Protest calling for the Khlifah in London. Guy Corbishley/Demotix. All rights reserved.
Not surprisingly, Islamic State followers on social media were quick to circulate the results of the poll as clear evidence of the group’s popularity. If many of the 19 percent of respondents who selected “No” are non-Sunnis and/or non-Arabs, the percentage of Sunni readers of Al-Jazeera.net who support the Islamic State could be even higher than the poll suggests.
