Research into Dutch Turks’ attitudes to IS shows ‘serious shortcomings’

Controversial research into the attitudes of young Dutch Turks to IS, which showed 80% saw nothing wrong in jihad against non-believers, has ‘serious shortcomings, the social affairs ministry said on Tuesday.

The research, carried out by the Motivaction group in Amsterdam, was commissioned by the Forum multicultural institute and involved a mixture of online and face-to-face interviews with Dutch Turks aged between 18 and 34. It was published to a media storm last November.

Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher, who initially said the results were ‘worrying’, commissioned another research bureau to look into the claims after they were dismissed as unrepresentative by critics.

The researchers carried out their interviews with mosque visitors and people in a shopping centre which is ‘a highly selective method’, experts said at the time.

The new analysis, by the Labyrinth research bureau, concludes the results of the survey are untrustworthy, that the questions were poorly formulated and that it was unclear what the youths questioned meant by ‘jihadism’ and ‘caliphate’.

Asscher said he regrets the fact young Turkish Dutch people have been hurt by the survey and has asked the government’s socio-cultural think-tank SCP to carry out new research.