Muslims in Britain are far more likely to hold positive opinions of terrorist groups in the Middle East, Antisemitic attitudes towards Jewish people, support blasphemy laws, and see their religion as more important than their national identity, a report has found.
The “Understanding Islamopopulism” report from the Policy Exchange think tank has cast doubt over the feasibility of successfully integrating the four million plus Muslims into broader British society and democratic system. The report found that UK Muslims are increasingly favouring single-issue pro-Gaza politicians over the left-wing Labour Party, which they hitherto largely supported.
However, polling conducted for the firm of over 1,000 Muslims last month by JL Partners found that the group appears to be significantly out of step with the British public as a whole on major dividing issues. The report questioned if the rise of “Islamopopulism” could result in the voting bloc becoming so “toxic” that larger parties may fear aligning themselves with British Muslims. The report also suggested that contrary blocs, such as conservative or Hindu voters, may coalesce around opposing candidates backed by Islamopopulist forces.
The survey of UK Muslim adults “found concerning levels of favourable feelings towards terrorist organisations which have been proscribed by the Home Office.” For instance, the poll found that one in four British Muslims hold a positive view of the Palestinian Hamas terrorists behind the October 7th terror attacks on Israel. Meanwhile, the survey found that 23 per cent held a favourable view of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has been behind the proliferation of terror throughout the Middle East, 16 per cent held a favourable view of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), and 15 per cent held a favourable view of Al-Qaeda.
The report also found large “differences between the general population and the British Muslims living in these areas when it comes to their perception of Jews and whether they have considerable power over key spheres of British life such as politics, media, and banking, with the British Muslim respondents being far more likely to believe that Jewish people are too powerful in general.”
While just 11 per cent of the general public in Britain said they held an unfavourable opinion of Jews, Muslim respondents were far more likely to hold a negative view of Jews, at 21 per cent. Additionally, 45 per cent said that Jews have too much power in the media, 43 per cent said that they hold too much power in the weapons manufacturing industry, and 42 per cent said that they have too much power in the banking system.
On top of having radically different views on Jews or Middle Eastern terror groups, the report found that there is a “considerable gap between the general population sample and the British Muslim respondents in the polled areas in terms of their views on making it a criminal offence to show or create images in public which depict the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.”
While 17 per cent of the public as a whole would be in favour of creating such a blasphemy law, over half of Muslims in the UK would want to criminalise the depiction of the Islamic prophet. Additionally, 63 per cent of UK Muslims would make it a criminal offence to burn a copy of the Qur’an.
Perhaps most concerningly, 24 per cent of British Muslims said that it would be a “legitimate response” to violently attack someone who was burning the Qur’an or showing images depicting their prophet. Meanwhile, less than half of British Muslims said that violence would never be an acceptable response.
The UK Muslim population is also more likely to see their religious identity as more central than their British national identity, with 63 per cent of Muslims ranking their religious identity as most important to them, compared to just 12 per cent of the public as a whole. Conversely, 43 per cent of Britons ranked their national identity as most important, compared to 12 per cent of UK Muslims.
This perhaps explains the propensity of UK Muslims to rank Islamic issues, such as Gaza or Islamophobia, as critical to who they vote for. The survey found that a quarter of British Muslims ranked Gaza as the most important issue in the upcoming local elections across the UK, despite local councillors having no power to impact the Middle East situation whatsoever.
Over one in five, 22 per cent, of UK Muslims also listed “Islamophobia” as their top issue heading into this week’s elections.
Commenting on the findings, the co-author of the report, Dr Rakib Ehsan, said: “The portrayal of modern Britain as a flourishing multi-faith democracy – a paragon of religious diversity – simply no longer holds. In the face of Islamist extremism, which remains the country’s principal terror threat, the UK continues to be presented with significant challenges in terms of cohesion, integration, and security.”
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