AGAIN?

First published: 26 Mar 2004 The Asian News

THE US/UK 'war on terrorism' has radicalised Britain's 1.6 million Muslims driving them away from New Labour one of the biggest opinion polls since September 11 has revealed.

Over 1,500 Muslims, including hundreds from Greater Manchester, were interviewed between 3 and 11 March and the results were startling. They reveal that the Bush/Blair line has made the UK Muslim community feel less secure and less inclined to follow the West's propaganda that terrorists are criminal lunatics not motivated by any genuine desire for justice.

In fact more than one in ten of individuals asked about 9/11 said further attacks on the US would be justified.
When asked if they agreed with the Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge's statement that if she was a Palestinian she might consider becoming a suicide bomber 47 per cent of Muslims said yes compared with 43 per cent who said no. This was in sharp contrast to a sample of all British voters who answer 15 per cent yes, to 78 per cent no.

Another finding had potentially dire consequences for new Labour, especially in constituencies where the Asian vote can swing the result - and that includes at least two Manchester seats as well as Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside and Blackburn, the later represented by the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw in the House of Commons.

When asked who they would vote for in the next general election only 38 per cent of Muslims said New Labour, compared to 75 per cent who supported the party at the last election.

The Iraq war and the general offensive against, what the tabloids call, militant Islam, is the cause of this dramatic swing by Muslims away from their traidtional voting patterns. Significantly the one mainstream party, the Lib Dems, who opposed the war, now command 60 per cent of the Muslim vote according to the poll.
One telling result came from the question: "President Bush and Tony Blair have said the war against terrorism in not a war against Islam. Do you agree or disagree".

Only 20 per cent agreed against 68 per cent who disagreed. But here Muslim opinion is not out of step with the mainstream. Other polls have revealed that up to 80 per cent of the British public just do not believe the two leaders' explanations of the military invasion of Iraq.

There is one encouraging note. Political hostility to the US/UK governments new policy of removing opponents by military force even when they do not pose a serious, immediate threat to the home country, has not made the majority of Muslims reject integration with their non-Muslim countrymen.A third are still in favour of more integration in the UK with 28 per cent claiming the situation is about right and only 26 per cent fearing it has gone too far.

Taken as a whole the poll may show that their political opposition to the Bush/Blair doctrines does not mean Muslims have given up hope of living and merging more with the masses of ordinary non-Muslim people they live among.