- When polled, 27% said they agreed with the statement 'I have sympathy for the motives behind the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris'
- More than 1 in 10 agreed that satirical magazine 'deserved' to be targeted
- And 10% knew Muslims who had Al-Qaeda and Islamic State sympathies
- Tory peer Baroness Warsi said the figures released today were 'worrying'
More than a quarter of British Muslims have sympathy for the motives behind the attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, which left 12 people dead, a survey shows.
The new poll also revealed that 32 per cent of respondents were 'not surprised' that the massacre took place after the publication printed a number of images of Mohammed.
And more than 10 per cent of the 1,000 British Muslims interviewed agreed that the magazine 'deserved' to be attacked.
The survey also found that almost one in 10 knew other Muslims who had strong sympathies with those fighting for Al-Qaeda or Islamic State.
The figures were branded as 'worrying' by Former faith and communities minister Baroness Warsi, who said they needed to be 'unpicked further'
Twelve people, including eight journalists, were murdered when masked gunmen stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices, in the first of a spree of killings across the French capital last month.
The satirical newspaper made a name for itself as an irreverent and often provocative newspaper after taking a number of controversial swipes at Islam and other religions.
When polled, 27 per cent said they agreed with the statement 'I have sympathy for the motives behind the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris'.
'Worrying': Lady Warsi, the first female Muslim in the Cabinet, said the figures had to be 'unpicked'
The new survey, conducted by ComRes for BBC Radio 4, revealed that almost 80 per cent of British Muslims found it deeply offensive when images depicting the Prophet were published.
While more than one in three said that they understood the motives of those who launched attacks in the name of Islam because the religion had been insulted.
Speaking to the Today programme on Radio 4, Lady Warsi, the first female Muslim in the Cabinet, said: ‘These are as far as I’m concerned worrying statistics.
'I’d have like to unpick that further and the reasoning’s why they came to that decision.'
She added that a citizenship survey should be reintroduced to provide the Government with a 'solid evidence base' and to help them try and understand the 'changing picture' of Britain.
The poll also found that a majority of Muslims - 85 per cent - said they felt no sympathy for those who want to fight against Western interests.
The same proportion of respondents said they oppose violence against people who publish images depicting Mohammed.
Nearly three million Muslims live in Britain, but instances of extremist ideology have led to growing unease among many and fears of rising prejudice.
The poll also suggests that almost half of British Muslims believe they face discrimination because of their faith and that Britain is becoming less tolerant, while the same percentage feel prejudice against Islam makes it difficult being a Muslim in the UK.
More than a third of those interviewed felt that most Britons do not trust Muslims and a fifth said they thought Western liberal society could never be compatible with Islam.
Of those polled, 95 per cent felt a loyalty to Britain, while 93 per cent believed that Muslims in Britain should always obey British laws.
And Muslim women were more likely than men to feel unsafe in Britain, the survey revealed.
When asked about the place of faith schools in Britain, more than a third said they would want their children to go to a Muslim state school if they had the choice.
And only 55 per cent of those polled felt the Muslim Council of Britain adequately represented the views of Muslims in the country.
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