Eighteen percent of Muslim Arabs living in Israel do not consider ISIS to be a terrorist organization. Photo: Screenshot, Fox News Sunday.

JNS.org – Eighteen percent of Muslim Arabs living in Israel do not consider the Islamic State terror group to be a terrorist organization and are not ashamed of its extremist Islamist ideology, according to the newly released 2015 Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel survey, produced by Professor Sammy Smooha of the University of Haifa.

The index reveals that 57 percent of Muslim Arabs in Israel think that the Islamic Movement in Israel — whose northern branch this week was outlawed due to incitement to violence over the Temple Mount holy site — represents them faithfully, while half categorized themselves as supporters of the Islamic Movement or as being active members.

The survey, according to its website, is “based on a survey of adult Arab and Jewish populations, with more than 100 questions on 16 different issues, including segregation, perception of the other, alienation, threats, collective memory, legitimacy of coexistence and the state, the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s integration in the region, identity, minority leadership, means of struggle, and possibilities for change.”