About a third of Britons believe Jesus Christ was an 'extremist,' ComRes poll reveals

An opinion poll conducted by ComRes has found that almost a third of people in the U.K. believe that Jesus Christ was an "extremist."

The survey, commissioned by the Evangelical Alliance and a coalition of organizations, found that 28 percent of 2,004 respondents considered Jesus to be an extremist.

A quarter of respondents said that Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela could also be considered extremists, The Catholic Herald reported. Thirteen percent also said the same for the Dalai Lama, and 20 percent gave the same description to Gandhi.

The findings also indicated that 41 percent the respondents believe that defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman only amounts to extremism.

The study came just weeks after the British Government announced plans to set up a Commission for Countering Extremism as a way to combat Islamist ideology and "to support the Government in stamping out extremist ideology in all its forms, both across society and on the internet, so it is denied a safe space to spread."

Other findings revealed that while 54 percent found the word "extremism" an unhelpful "description when discussing political or social opinions," 23 percent said it was a helpful description, while 14 percent did not know what it was.

Churches have expressed skepticism about the strategy to combat the spread of ideas considered as extremist due to the subjective and changing nature of how extremism can be defined.

Some Christian groups have lamented that the measures that are intended to combat the spread of radical Islam have been used as a pretext to impose secularist ideologies on children attending schools affiliated with churches.

"The language of extremism is a recipe for chaos and division. This poll shows the scale of moral confusion in our society with the public having no way of deciding whether something is extreme or not. It also shows the division that might ensue if the government persist in trying to use extremism as a way of regulating peaceful ideas in society," said Dr. David Landrum, director of advocacy for the Evangelical Alliance.

He contended that extremism, detached from terrorism and incitement to violence, cannot be used as a "litmus test" to judge peaceful beliefs and opinions.

"Indeed, the government have tried and failed over the last two years to define extremism with any precision and this poll shows that the public share that confusion," he added.

The respondents were less divided when asked about leaving the European Union. Thirty percent stated that it was extreme to believe that the U.K. should remain in the EU. In contrast, 36 percent said it was extreme to believe that the U.K. should leave.