NOP Poll of British Muslims
Channel 4 has commissioned a NOP poll of British Muslims for Dispatches. Some of the results are in a pdf here, other questions are included. The Channel 4 website has all the questions here, but with results that differ slightly in places - possibly because they haven’t yet been weighted. Either way, the differences between the two sets of figures are trivial.
The pattern that emerges from the survey is familar from other surveys of Muslim opinion in the last year or so. There is no universal, monilithic Muslim opinion - there is as much variety as among non-Muslims. While a small minority of Muslims sympathise with extremism and Islamist terror, the vast majority do not.
Asked how important religion was to them 78% of British Muslims said very important, but 48% of them also said they never attended a mosque, with another 6% saying they only attended for special occassions. The actual religious observance of Muslims doesn’t seem to match with how important they say religion is to them (in some ways this is comparable to Christianity in Britain - in the census around 70% of people self-identified as Christians, but many of them say they don’t believe in a god and only a fraction attend church aside from for weddings and funerals).
61% of British Muslims said they thought of Britain as “my country”. There was support for some degree of integration - 94% of respondents disagreed that Muslims should live separately from non-Muslims but at the same time, given the choice 36% would prefer to have fellow Muslims as neighbours. Asked if they would prefer to live under Sharia law or British law, 30% said Sharia while 54% preferred British law. I mentioned in my comments on an earlier ICM poll Sharia law does not necessarily equate to the hand-chopping, adulterer-stoning version in the tabloid press, Western countries like Canada have in the past allowed the use of Sharia law under limited circumstances for things like inheritance law, so it was then impossible to tell exactly what people were supporting. In contrast NOP specifically stated in their poll “Sharia law, as practiced in such countries as Saudi Arabia and Iran” - perhaps explaining why the proportion of British Muslims supporting it was 10 percentage points lower than in ICM’s poll.
28% of British Muslims agreed that they dreamt of Britain one day becoming an Islamic state. Again, it’s worth putting this in proportion - I am sure many evangelical Christians would dream of the day when the whole world would embrace Christianity.
Asked about attitudes towards free speech, there was little support for freedom of speech if it would offend religious sensibilities. 78% of Muslims thought that the publishers of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed should be prosecuted, 68% thought those who insulted Islam should be prosecuted and 62% of people disagree that freedom of speech should be allowed even if it insults and offends religious groups. This is one of those areas where it would be useful to have parallel polling of non-Muslims - we know from past polls that the general public think that things like the cartoons should be able to be published, but then, non-Muslims are not the ones offended by them. Perhaps the closest parallel of something that Christian groups thought was offensive and wanted banned was Jerry Springer the Opera - in that context a poll of the general public suggested that only 17% of people thought that programmes that might offend religious sensibilities should not be shown at all.
Back to the Muslim poll, NOP also asked if British Muslims thought that relgious leaders who supported terrorism should be removed - 68% agreed, with 22% disagreeing. Cross-referencing these results, NOP characterised 9% of the Muslims they surveyed as “hardcore Islamists” - people who thought that it was perfectly okay to speak in support of terrorism, but thought people should be prosecuted for insulting Islam. This small minority tallies with NOP’s other questions on terrorism - 9% of respondents said it was acceptable for religious or political groups to use violence, 13% of people said they understand why young British Muslims might become suicide bombers (though again, this needs to be put in context. Parallel polls of Muslims and non-Muslims have shown that there are a small minority of non-Muslims who think terrorist attacks on civilians can be justified).
NOP also gave respondents a list of people and asked them if they respected them or not. The most respected figure amongst British Muslims (out of those in the survey) was the Queen (69% respected her highly, or a fair amount), followed by Sir Iqbal Sacranie (48%) and then, perhaps surprisingly, Tony Blair (44%), narrowly ahead of George Galloway on (40%). More worryingly 19% say they respect Osama bin Laden (6% say they highly respect him), 17% respect Saddam Hussein and 16% respect Abu Hamza.
NOP also found a tendency for British Muslims to believe some, well, strange things. 45% thought that 9/11 was a conspiracy between the USA and Israel. 36% thought that Princess Diana was murdered to stop her marrying a Muslim. More seriously, only 29% thought that the holocaust occured, 2% denied it happened entirely, 17% think it was exaggerated (which is the stance proposed by most of today’s holocaust deniers), 24% said they had “no opinion” and 23% didn’t know what the holocaust was. Again though, putting this in context, non-Muslims think odd things too - an ICM poll in 2004 found 14% of people in the UK thought that the scale of the holocaust had been exaggerated, 27% of the general public told NOP in 2003 that Princess Diana had been murdered (a poll commissioned, unsurprisingly, for the Sunday Express). I can’t find a British poll on whether 9/11 was a US conspriracy, but I have little doubt that a substantial minority would say it was. Yes, a minority of Muslims believe bizarre things, but then a minority of non-Muslims do too!
Filed under: NOP, Religion, Terrorism
Cheers Anthony, we’ve been discussing this over at Pickled Politics and the lack of data the programme was based on was a limiting facter on the debate:
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/687
“78% of Muslims thought that the publishers of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed should be prosecuted”
I wonder if they think the publishers should be prosecuted under sharia law? If so, that means they think they should be jailed or executed!
Muhammed himself had people assasinated for criticising him, so I suppose they only are following their prophet.
In any matter, people who do not believe in free speech and have immigrated to a country that practices free speesh can only mean one thing, they intend to change British law to suit Islam. They do not seek freedom, but domination and the snuffing of freedom.
Anthony,
Can you please stop trying to balance Muslim public opinion with what you consider to be the perceived and generally untested response of Christians in order to moderate what are some very disturbing findings.
Then attempting to humour the reader by merely downplaying the Muslim response to the actuality of the holocaust as ’strange’ and ‘bizarre’ is hardly in good taste and more befitting an article in the fortrean times. For what ever reason you avoid the point of the whole survey which is of a serious nature and requires considered analysis.
Frankly, I think would be misleading to put the finding about the holocaust there without comparison. It is obviously disturbing to find holocaust denial amongst any group, but to present it out of context would suggest that ignorance about the holocaust is “a Muslim thing” when the figures from the ICM poll for the Jewish Chronicle suggest that this isn’t some artifact of anti-Jewish feeling amongst the Muslim, but that ignorance of the holocaust is pretty much as widespread amongst the population as a whole.
In other polls there have been far more worrying findings about British Muslims attitudes towards Jews…but not here (it doesn’t contradict them, the questions just didn’t arise), The difference between 14% and 17% is hardly anything.
In any other context I’d describe people who don’t accept the reality of the holocaust as undoubtedly idiots or anti-semites and probably both, and the concept of holocaust denial as morally abhorrent, but I try to avoid overly emotive language in posts on sensitive subjects.
Anthony is right to point to the precise wording of some of the questions in these type of polls. For instance I remember a recent poll which produced an enormous majority of British muslims being presumed to believe in a 9/11 conspiracy. The question that had been asked was whether they believed that Arabs were responsible for 9/11. It’s quite possible to say that although a group led by Mohammed Atta carried out the 9/11 attacks, the responsibility lies elsewhere - and that does not make you into a conspiracy theorist.
Antony does have a point - a comparative poll where Muslims and non-Muslims were both surveyed with the same questions would have be far more useful. The funny thing is , most of the conspiracy theories about 9/11 originate from the U.S., on non-islamic, conspiracy sites run by Americans. These are obviously filtering into the Muslim community, but equally, you will probably find that a similar percentage of non-Muslims could possibly believe them too.
For me, the most surprising result was that 44% of Muslims respected Tony Blair - which does go against the constant media portrayal of Muslims being against him (well, thats the media-fed impression I get). Maybe thats just a case of he who shouts loudest gets noticed more.
“61% of British Muslims said they thought of Britain as “my country”.”
this is also a misleading polling result. I can only speak for myself, but I was born in Britain to Irish parents, moved back to Ireland when I was very young, and moved back to Britain in my 20s in the mid 1990s. Despite this long connection to Brtiain, and being very happy in this country, I would still answer “Ireland” to the “my country” question. This is not being disloyal - for if there was a military draft in the morning and i was called up, i wouldnt hesitate to defend Britain. I wouldnt even think twice about it. But those green fields of Ireland will always be who am I. Its just my identity. I suspect that 2nd generation British Pakistani Muslims have the same sort of thing going on, even though they are born here.
You would find a similar thing amongst Americans settled in Britain , or Aussies or Kiwis or French.. all happliy living here, but their home country will always be their “my country”.
A more direct question about loyalty to Britain would be required , such as the military draft scenario i mentioned above.
Wow. Here is a very precise, detailed report of Muslim opinion, and you make every attempt to excuse the ignorance and paranoia which is revealed. It’s exactly your type of submissive (and irrationally forgiving) attitude which will only invite more attacks and destruction.
Anyone with a web browser can find examples of ignorance in other societies and cultures. But to point them out here is to ignore the startling revelations in this poll. After all, Muslim opinion was the subject matter. Why must you equivocate?
Given the holocaust was a very christian atrocity in which the catholic church was a key player, then it is appropriate that it should be believed as presented by Europeans, with 600, 000 plus dead in Iraq, not including those from the first gulf war and ensuing sanctions, muslims have every right to feel aggrieved. sadly muslims blame the wrong group, it is the Zionists, both Christain and Jewish that are responsible. Why not poll the Germans and ask them how many died in the holocaust? I am sure the results will not be that surprising. Or ask non ethinic Britains about slavery and how many Africans died, I am sure the answers will be unpalatable to many other than the racists and right wingers. For the record most Muslims were born here, they did not come from ‘other places.’ Muslims might talk in extreme terms but it is non muslims that act them out on a grand scale. Cannot remenber a muslim army ever being sent to Ireland to keep peace??!!
[...] In the distributor’s defense, there’s clearly a market for it: a poll of British Muslims last year found that 45% believed 9/11 was a Zionist/American conspiracy. I hope some right-wing media outlet over there has the good sense to try to get demographic data about who’s buying tickets after it’s released. No doubt the results would be highly “nuanced.” [...]