A new Daily Wire/Whatsgoodly survey asked students if they believe radical Islam has connections to terrorism. One-third of the respondents were unwilling to make that connection.
The online survey, conducted from June 6 to June 12 gauged the opinions of 1,489 college students (margin of error +/-3%) from all over the country and all over the ideological map. Asked “Do you believe radical Islam has connections with terrorism?” a total of 66% said “yes,” 15% said “no,” and 17% said they were “unsure.”
The survey found significant differences in the association of radical Islam with terrorism according to the political leanings of the respondents. Among the “pro-Clinton” respondents, 62% answered yes, 19% said no, and 19% were unsure if radical Islam has connections with terrorism. The “pro-Trump” respondents much more strongly associated radical Islam with terrorism: 89% yes, 5% no, 6% unsure. “Pro-Gary Johnson” respondents fell in between the two: 83% yes, 6% no, 11% unsure. Bernie Sanders supporters saw the issue similarly to Clinton supporters: 66% yes, 17% no, and 17% unsure.
The “pro-Clinton” respondents outnumbered the “pro-Trump” respondents by nearly two to one, though the largest percentage (40%) said they did not vote; among that group, 59% said yes, 19% said no, and 22% said they were unsure. Below is the breakdown by vote:
Of those who chose to offer their ideological leanings, those who leaned “liberal” were the largest percentage (40%), followed by those who described themselves as “centrist” (31%) and finally those who leaned “conservative” (29%). The conservatives connected radical Islam to terrorism the most consistently (94%) compared to 73% of those who described themselves as liberal and 74% of the centrists.
Significantly more of the male respondents (82% yes, 8% no, 10% unsure) were willing to say that radical Islam is connected to terrorism compared with the females, of which only 63% said yes (16% no, 21% unsure). Slightly more of the respondents were male than female (54/46).
Roughly a third of respondents provided their religious affiliations, among those 50% said they were Christian, 10% said they were Jewish, and 40% said “other.” Responses from those three categories were similar, ranging from 78 to 83%:
