Hawzah News Agency (London, UK) – About two-fifths of the population would be concerned if a mosque was built in their neighborhood or if a family member married a Muslim.
One in five would be concerned if a Muslim family moved next door and 3 in 10 would object to their child visiting a mosque.
Yet the public blame hostility to Muslims more on right-wing and far-right groups than on the behavior of Muslims themselves, according to a ComRes poll commissioned by a group called Muslim Engagement and Development, which seeks to involve more Muslims in media and politics.
Groups such as the English Defence League are blamed by 61% of the population, followed by 55% who blame right-wing groups such as Ukip.
The behavior of Muslims abroad is blamed by 59%, with 45% blaming Muslims in the UK. Younger people are significantly more tolerant.
Nearly half (48%) of the public believe that prejudice against Islam makes it difficult to be a Muslim in this country and more than half (58%) agree that Islamophobia is a real problem. A fifth (20%) do not think a person can see themselves as both Muslim and British.
Nearly half (47%) of those polled believe Britain is becoming less tolerant of Muslims, and almost half (48%) believe there is more discrimination against Muslims than people of other faiths. Muslims make up about 5% of the British population, yet more than a third of respondents estimated they accounted for at least four times that.
Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, an independent think tank, said the findings showed a “worrying level of casual anti-Muslim prejudice”.
He said this was a particular problem in areas of low diversity: “Where people have personal contact with Muslims, they can put extreme voices like Anjem Choudary into context.
“Good local relations between faiths in diverse classrooms and cities is important but not enough. We need to reach out across the generations to less diverse areas too.”
Shazad Amin, chief executive of Muslim Engagement and Development, said: “Too often people question the very existence of Islamophobia, but the British public have spoken, and over half feel [it] is a real problem. We have to tackle it together.”
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