Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Two-thirds of Muslims consider leaving Britain

Vikram Dodd:

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have thought about leaving Britain after the London bombings, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll.

The figure illustrates how widespread fears are of an anti-Muslim backlash following the July 7 bombings which were carried out by British born suicide bombers.

The poll also shows that tens of thousands of Muslims have suffered from increased Islamophobia, with one in five saying they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility since the attacks.

Police have recorded more than 1,200 suspected Islamophobic incidents across the country ranging from verbal abuse to one murder in the past three weeks. The poll suggests the headline figure is a large underestimate.

The poll came as British Islamic leaders and police met to try to boost recruitment of Muslim officers, improve efforts to protect Muslims from a backlash, and improve the flow of information from Muslims to the police about suspected terrorist activity.

Nearly two-thirds of Muslims told pollsters that they had thought about their future in Britain after the attacks, with 63% saying they had considered whether they wanted to remain in the UK. Older Muslims were more uneasy about their future, with 67% of those 35 or over having contemplated their future home country compared to 61% among those 34 or under.

Britain's Muslim population is estimated at 1.6million, with 1.1million over 18, meaning more than half a million may have considered the possibility of leaving.

Three in 10 are pessimistic about their children's future in Britain, while 56% said they were optimistic.

Nearly eight in 10 Muslims believe Britain's participation in invading Iraq was a factor leading to the bombings, compared to nearly two-thirds of all Britons surveyed for the Guardian earlier this month. Tony Blair has repeatedly denied such a link.

Muslim clerics' and leaders' failure to root out extremists is a factor behind the attacks identified by 57% of Muslims, compared to 68% of all Britons, and nearly two-thirds of Muslims identify racist and Islamophobic behaviour as a cause compared to 57% of all Britons.

The general population and Muslims apportion virtually the same amount of blame to the bombers and their handlers, with eight in 10 or more citing these as factors.

The poll finds a huge rejection of violence by Muslims with nine in 10 believing it has no place in a political struggle. Nearly nine out of 10 said they should help the police tackle extremists in the Islamic communities in Britain.

A small rump, potentially running into thousands, told ICM of their support for the attacks on July 7 which killed 56 and left hundreds wounded - and 5% said that more attacks would be justified. Those findings are troubling for those urgently trying to assess the pool of potential suicide bombers.

Muslim Poll - July 2005

ICM Research

British Muslims Review Reasons for Terrorism

Moderate Jihad?

The land that lost its pride

3 Comments:

At 2:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good riddance, don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out, etc etc.

Actually, I think the UK should offer financial incentives to hasten this, which would be a far better use of money now currently spent on asylum seekers.

 
At 3:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually, I think the UK should offer financial incentives to hasten this, which would be a far better use of money now currently spent on asylum seekers.

Agreed!

 
At 9:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, of course they won't go.

If the cash inducement for them to leave is going to be realistic (ie cover the full costs of the welfare, health and education benefits that are likely to accrue to an immigrant family in their lifetime, as compared to the lack of benefits at home, then, rationally, we are talking of very, very ,large sums of money, in the oder of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds.Of course finding this money for Britain's untold millions of immigrants would bankrupt the nation.

 

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