Majority in Muslim dominated nations view ISIS negatively

New research has found that people in 11 countries with significant Muslim population hold overwhelmingly negative views about the Islamic State, with Pakistan being the exception.

Most people in Pakistan have no definite opinion on the terror group, according the research.

Islamic terrorism is in the forefront of international relations after the recent attacks in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The Pew Research Center, a non-partisan fact tank, informs the public about issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.

Only 28 per cent in Pakistan held an unfavourable view of ISIS, while 62 per cent of the Pakistanis had no opinion on the extremist group.

The survey was conducted in Israel, Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, Senegal, Turkey, Jordan and Burkina Faso.

The nationally representative survey formed part of the Centre's annual global poll in April and May.

India, with a significant Muslim population, was not part of the survey.

In Lebanon, which has a significant Christian population, and where the population of Shia and Sunni Muslims is almost equal, 100 per cent of those surveyed held an unfavourable view of ISIS, including 99 per cent with very unfavourable opinion

''Israelis (97 per cent) and Jordanians (94 per cent) were also strongly opposed to ISIS as of spring 2015, including 91 per cent of Israeli Arabs.  And 84 percent in the Palestinian territories had a negative view of ISIS, both in the Gaza Strip (92 per cent) and the West Bank (79 per cent),'' Pew said, in a statement.

''In Nigeria, there was somewhat more support for ISIS (14 per cent favourable) compared with other countries, but attitudes differed sharply by religious affiliation,'' the survey found.

''An overwhelming number of Nigerian Christians (71 per cent) had an unfavorable view of ISIS, as did 61 per cent of Nigerian Muslims.

However, 20 per cent of Nigerian Muslims had a favorable view of ISIS when the poll was conducted in the spring of this year.''