Although European pro-IS users of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, remain in a minority, their numbers increased significantly over the period from July to October 2014, according to the study as quoted by The Guardian.
Some 31 percent of Arab-speaking users in Belgium support IS activity. 24 percent of pro-IS posts have come from the United Kingdom, and around 21 percent — from the United States and France, according to the report.
The overall majority of IS supporters in Europe and the Middle East (37.5 percent), claim that the militants are defending Islam, while 26.2 percent approved of the IS" vow to convert people to Islam. Only 8.3 percent of posts backed IS activity due to its anti-West position.
Of those who are critical of IS in their posts, 32.8 percent say that the militants distort Islam and misinterpret the Quran, while 28.9 percent condemn their violence. Only 4.7 percent criticized the IS for their terrorist activities.
The IS, a Sunni extremist group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control.
