Hamas fighters on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Majdi Fathi via Reuters Connect

When I read that 44 percent of American Muslims surveyed held a favorable view of Hamas, my first reaction was alarm.

Hamas is an Islamist terrorist organization whose ideology cannot be reconciled with pluralism, democracy, or lasting peace.

As an Ismaili Muslim who has spent years speaking out against Islamist extremism and for Muslim-Jewish coexistence, I found the results deeply troubling.

Yet I couldn’t read that poll in isolation.

Only days earlier, I had returned home to Montreal from the Tel Aviv Institute’s New Middle East Laboratory in London. The gathering was organized around a simple but ambitious question: What could a genuinely new Middle East look like? To explore that question, the Institute brought together Muslim reformers, Israelis, Iranians, Assyrians, Coptic Egyptians, Druze, Somalilanders, and others who rarely have the opportunity to engage with one another honestly.

The purpose was not to erase our disagreements. It was to demonstrate that disagreement does not have to end the conversation. By listening before responding, asking questions instead of assuming motives, and treating one another as human beings rather than political abstractions, we built relationships across divides that often seem impossible to bridge.

That perspective stayed with me when I read the Pew survey.

Yes, 44 percent is an alarming number. But another figure deserves just as much attention: 56 percent of American Muslims do not hold a favorable view of Hamas.

The challenge, then, is not simply understanding why some Muslims sympathize with Hamas. It is recognizing the opportunity presented by the majority who do not, and asking how those voices can be equipped to have difficult conversations within their own families, friendships, and communities.

My confidence that this is possible comes from my own upbringing.

Growing up, I never really understood what Zionism meant. Like many Muslims, I inherited misconceptions about the term long before I ever examined it for myself.

It wasn’t until I visited Israel, spoke with Jews and Israelis, and began challenging the glorification of Hamas on my university campus that I realized how incomplete my understanding had been.

I came to recognize that Zionism, at its core, is simply the belief that the Jewish people deserve the same right to national self-determination as any other people.

That is why education matters. I did not begin identifying as a Zionist because someone shouted louder than I did, or tried to shame me.

What changed my mind was patient dialogue, a better understanding of what Zionism actually means, and a willingness to stay engaged even when the discussions became uncomfortable.

That is why I believe the New Middle East Laboratory offers more than an inspiring anecdote. It provides a blueprint. The participants did not need convincing that Hamas’ ideology should be rejected. What the Laboratory demonstrated was how trust can be built across profound differences and how that trust creates space for more honest conversations, better questions, and deeper understanding.

Those are the conditions under which people are more likely to reconsider ideas they have long taken for granted.

The Pew poll demands a serious response. We should not minimize the fact that 44 percent of American Muslims expressed a favorable view of Hamas. But neither should we overlook the majority who rejected it.

That majority is more than a reassuring statistic. It represents the people most capable of reaching family members, friends, and neighbors who may never be persuaded by politicians, commentators, and outside advocates.

If support for Hamas is to decline, those conversations will almost certainly begin there.

The poll is concerning, but today’s statistics do not determine the future. If we want the next generation of Muslims to reject Hamas because they genuinely understand why this ideology is incompatible with Western democratic values, then our task is clear: keep investing in education, keep building relationships, and keep talking.

Raihaana Adira is a Canadian Muslim and recent McGill University graduate who advocates for Muslim-Jewish dialogue and coexistence. Drawing on her experience as a Muslim Zionist, she writes about the Middle East, antisemitism, and the importance of education in countering extremism.