LONDON -- On Monday, The Sun newspaper's front-page lead claimed that 1 in 5 British Muslims have expressed "sympathy for jihadis" fighting in Syria. The highly-contentious headline has raised some serious questions about The Sun's interpretation of poll results.
The poll -- commissioned by the paper in the wake of the Paris attacks -- was conducted via telephone interviews of 1,003 people who identified as British Muslims. Respondents were asked if they felt any sympathy for young Muslims who had left the UK to join militia groups in Syria, and 19% of participants said they felt at least "some sympathy".
SUN FRONT PAGE: '1 in 5 Brit Muslims' sympathy for jihadis' #skypapers pic.twitter.com/JpZ8x1KLz5
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 22, 2015
The headline has attracted a record number of complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, exceeding Katie Hopkins' column labelling migrants as "cockroaches" in April this year.
On Twitter, though, people took matters into their own hands by tweeting hilarious responses to the headline using the #1in5Muslims hashtag. The tweets make for some highly entertaining reading. From odes to Zayn Malik:
#1in5Muslims are your daughter's favorite heartthrob pic.twitter.com/8WU0nEY17L — Khaled Bey (@KhaledBeydoun) November 24, 2015
#1in5muslims knew Zayn Malik's engagement wouldn't last. — M Ullah (@M_Ullah) November 23, 2015
#1in5muslims look like Zayn Malik, according to their mums. — Sarkhaíl Khan (@Sarkhail7Khan) November 23, 2015
To Adele:
#1in5Muslims think if only @Adele said Salaam instead of Hello the dude would be forced to reply!!
— Bilal (@bilalhassam) November 23, 2015
#1in5Muslims think this guy is an idiot. So do the other 4 pic.twitter.com/soXglcf3gh — TrivWorks (@TrivWorks) November 23, 2015
Narnia came up, too:
1 in 5 Muslims wouldn't mind submitting to Aslan! Hey man it's your choice, go follow that lion! pic.twitter.com/keISUbZ5tj — Asimah (@AsimahS) November 23, 2015
Justin Bieber made an appearance:
#1in5Muslims is a Belieber. — Leeya (@Soul_Dignified) November 23, 2015
The age-old "Friends" debate reared its head:
#1in5muslims think Ross and Rachel were on a break — (@LiberatedSoul_) November 23, 2015
Microsoft Word popped up in the discussion:
#1in5Muslims are lucky enough not to have a red squiggly line under their name in Microsoft Word — Hamzah Moin (@hamzahmoin) November 24, 2015
Most important of all, however, were these Tweets:
#1in5Muslims think @TheSun is islamophobic. — Heart Me (@ha7mi) November 24, 2015
#1in5Muslims are people - human beings - just like the other 4 and the rest of us. So shuddup. — Sean Teale (@seanjteale) November 24, 2015
#1in5Muslims I meet are amazing, talented, kind people. The other four are too. Love > Hate. — Jeff Barrett (@BarrettAll) November 24, 2015