The Daily Express appear to have deleted a story suggesting that 1.5 million British Muslims support terror group Islamic State — based on polling which apparently did not ask respondents their religion or state clearly that ISIS was a terror group.

The headline for the online version was …

“Half of British Muslims ‘support ISIS’ as fears grow over influence of terror group”

… with the strapline:

“HALF of Britain’s three million Muslims could support the Islamic State terror group, a shocking new survey has revealed.”

While Scrapbook cannot locate the new polling, the 2014 ICM survey on behalf of Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya only asked a single question about ISIS — which used a formulation recently condemned precisely because it conflates the beheading enthusiasts with a legitimate nation state:

“From what you know, please, tell me if you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant otherwise known as ISIS?

While the piece is still available in search engine caches, visitors to the original link are now greeted with ‘Page Missing Mystery’:

What is more of a mystery is how the Express can justify such a headline.