Technorati Tags: melanie+phillips, londonistan I waited for some time to pick up my copy of Melanie Phillips’s book Londonistan, largely because I have a conscience about paying for books which are as full of damaging gibberish as this one is…….

17 April 2007

Press Release: UK – IHRC Response to Gallup Poll of Muslims

Today’s findings by Gallup regarding Muslims in Britain reflect earlier findings by the Islamic Human Rights Commission’s (IHRC) own research in the British Muslims’ Expectations of the Government (BMEG) series (1).

BMEG has shown that an overwhelming 91.4% of British Muslims respect the law to varying degrees with the highest disregard for British law coming from those who considered themselves to be secular, cultural Muslims and who did not care about Islamic values.

Unfortunately, what IHRC’s research has also shown is that while a majority of Muslims respect British, a majority also felt that British law failed to respect them (2).

The Gallup findings also confirm IHRC’s own findings that almost 80% of British Muslims see little or no contradiction between being a good British citizen and being a practising Muslim (3), many citing their faith as a reason for their loyalty.

IHRC is very concerned that although these realities have been highlighted in numerous reports, negative stereotyping of Muslims remains at a very high level. This has a direct knock-on effect on community relationships as shown in a recent Populus poll which found that only 33% of the general population said they had Muslims as close personal friends. By contrast, almost 90% of Muslims polled said they had close friends who were non-Muslim.

IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh stated:

“What this research indicates is that community cohesion can only be created effectively through educating the wider population at large about the realities rather than false and negative stereotyping.”

For more information, please contact IHRC on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958 522 196 or email info@ihrc.org [ENDS]

Notes to Editor:
(1) The British Muslims’ Expectations of the Government series was begun in summer 2004 and is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

(2) IHRC’s report in the British Muslims’ Expectations of the Government series deal with the issues of citizenship and the justice system. Please contact the office info@ihrc.org for a review copy of: ‘Law and British Muslims: Domination of the Majority or Process of Balance?’. A report by Saied R. Ameli, Arzu Merali, Beena Faridi, and Karin Lindahl for the Islamic Human Rights Commission. Publication date: 18th May 2006, ISBN 1-903718-32-5, 101 pp, or visit the website for a summary:

trolls aren’t welcome

I see that you put Jew and Anglo seperatly, of course I should not be suprised after all of these years.

I think that Muslims and jeww have many shared experiences over centuries, I saw the link that statler to the jews of spain, one of the picutes there showed Jews fighting alongside Muslims in Spain.

I think that some Muslims should not make their relations with Jews all about Israel

The only way you can be mistrustful of data is to provide compelling counter data, otherwise one can rightly assume that your statement is your unsubstantiated personal view.

Nor did I suggest that the sample was representative of the entire country.

The mean spirited nature of some of the comments here suggests that some people don’t want to hear of Muslims in a positive light under any circumstances.

Hm, perhaps I’ll be more convinced that Melanie is completely wrong and over-reacting when I see more Jews and Anglos marching in their thousands in the streets of Islamic capitals waving placards calling for Muslims to be beheaded and killed in other delightful ways.

Given this, one assumes you would convinced that Mad Mel is utterly, profoundly, completely, insanely wrong if you were to see more Jews and Anglos not rallying in Muslim streets, but literally bombing the living dayights out of entire Muslim cities. See: Iraq (2003-) and Lebanon (2006). One assumes you are convinced.

Hm, perhaps I’ll be more convinced that Melanie is completely wrong and over-reacting when I see more Jews and Anglos marching in their thousands in the streets of Islamic capitals waving placards calling for Muslims to be beheaded and killed in other delightful ways.

*SNIP*

OK, you will accept that Melanie is wrong about Muslims in London if you see people of a completely different religion behaving badly in a completely different city in a completely different country.

I’m sure that made perfect sense to you when you were sitting there banging angrily away on the keyboard after a long night spent chasing the dragon or inhaling from a can of paint but now it’s just embarassing, innit?