This is from Britain’s Telegraph, but I think we would see similar numbers in other countries, and worse in some:
Only one in four British Muslims believe that Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel on Oct 7, a major report has found.
The numbers are even worse for “educated” Muslims:
Younger and well-educated Muslims were the most likely to think Hamas did not commit atrocities on Oct 7, with the proportions rising to 47 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds and 40 per cent among the university-educated.
There is, of course, no doubt about the fact that Hamas (i.e., Gaza) committed murder and rape on October 7. Hamas terrorists proudly videoed and broadcasted their crimes. They didn’t try to cover them up, but rather boasted of them. So why do their supporters now deny that these crimes, which many Muslims celebrated at the time, took place?
British authorities chalk it up to a failure of government programs:
Mr Mughal said: “The findings confirm that a lot of work needs to be done to inform, challenge, and address old anti-Semitic tropes that are still circulating among some of my co-religionists.
“The Government has got to provide better guidance for teachers, schools and education establishments. The investment needs to happen as soon as possible because we are at real risk of a social cohesion problem.”
***
Alan Mendoza, the executive director of HJS, said the findings show “the failure of counter-extremism policy over the years”.
I think the problem goes far deeper. True, we need to account for the increasingly common phenomenon of lying to pollsters for tactical reasons. But more than that, I think the problem is one of epistemology. Those of us who have grown up in the Western tradition formed by Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Hume and all the rest make certain assumptions about truth and reality, and it generally doesn’t occur to us to wonder whether those assumptions are universally shared. I don’t think they are.
I think that some cultures have a fundamentally different view of reality, of the objectivity of truth, of the importance of truth, and of the need for consistency. Thus, there are people who will say 1) that the Holocaust is a myth, and 2) that Hitler should have finished the job, without seeing any need for explanation or apology. And there are some who celebrate the outrages of October 7, while in the next breath denying that they occurred. Without in the least expecting to be believed.
If that is correct, the difficulties of cultural assimilation are more profound than is generally recognized.
