September 11 2026 - 6:45pm
A poll carried out by prominent British Muslim news site 5Pillars has found that 62% of its readers believe Israel was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. According to the survey, published ahead of today’s 25th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks against the United States which killed almost 3,000 people, only 3% of the publication’s audience think that the terrorist group was solely responsible. Over a quarter (26%) responded that 9/11 an “inside job” carried out by the US government.
A 5Pillars social media post sharing the survey — which involved “around 900” respondents, according to the publication — stated that “speculation still remains over who was actually behind the attacks.”
In an opinion piece accompanying the polling, 5Pillars senior correspondent Robert Carter wrote that “the results were striking but not very surprising […] reflecting a long-running belief among some in the Arab and Muslim world.” He added that “the idea that Israel […] wouldn’t have known of a massive attack on the West is hard to believe,” while acknowledging “there is no publicly established evidence” showing Israeli intelligence was aware of the exact nature or timing of the plane-hijacking plan.
Carter, a Muslim convert, claimed that the Jewish state “has since used global fears of ‘radical Islam’ to smear Muslim groups and countries which oppose Israel’s continued occupation and conquest of Palestine”. He added that Israel has been “one of the greatest geopolitical beneficiaries of 9/11”.
In a separate opinion piece on the website, published the day before the anniversary, 5Pillars founding editor Roshan Muhammed Salih argued that Muslims became the “suspect community” following 9/11, and that followers of the religion “remain under unprecedented attack”. He also expressed his belief that “aspects of the US deep state knew an attack was coming but let it happen so they could pursue their regime change projects in the Middle East.” Salih, who has previously worked for outlets including London Weekend Television and Al Jazeera, wrote in the article that “the post-9/11 years […] pushed me deeper into Islam.”
According to a poll carried out last month by the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, 66% of Middle East studies professors in the United States said their students are incapable of correctly identifying the perpetrators or causes of the September 11 attacks. Only 4% of academics expressed “complete confidence” in their students’ understanding of the events.
5Pillars, which Salih co-founded in 2013, has around half a million monthly readers and over 650,000 followers on Facebook. In 2024, the press regulator Impress ruled that the publication promoted “hatred and abuse” of Jews and LGBT people. That same year, 5Pillars released a short documentary praising the Taliban. When polled last month, 96% of the site’s readers responded that Afghanistan was a better place under Taliban control.
