Lib Dems enjoy strong Muslim support
Labour is failing to win the hearts and minds of British Muslims, an ICM poll for The Guardian has found.
Most Muslims said they were unconvinced by Tony Blair’s assurances that the war on terror was not targeted at Islam.
The poll found Liberal Democrats were the party most likely to take up the slack from the drop off in Labour support.
The Lib Dems enjoyed a healthy 41 per cent share of the Muslim vote.
Labour meanwhile slumped six points to 32 per cent since March, with the Conservatives down nine points at 16 per cent.
One in ten British Muslim voters backed smaller parties such as the Greens and George Galloway’s Respect Party.
A total of 61 per cent of Muslims told pollsters they wanted more use of Islamic Sharia courts to settle civil matters “so long as the penalties did not contravene British law” and changes to working hours to allow Muslim prayer hours.
Fifty-five per cent said schools should not be allowed to ban pupils from wearing the hijab or headscarf on the premises.
Over three-quarters of Muslims are estimated to have voted for Labour at the last election, but a sharp drop is predicted for the next election.
ICM interviewed a random sample of 500 Muslim people by telephone between November 15th and 21st. However, the data has not been weighted because, according to ICM, there is no authoritative source of demographic information on UK Muslims.
