Poll: Half Of Muslims Want Homosexuality Banned

Responding to the poll, Trevor Phillips says "the integration of Muslims will probably be the hardest task" the UK has ever faced.

07:47, UK, Monday 11 April 2016

The poll will feature in documentary 'What British Muslims Really Think'

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Just over half of Muslims in Britain think homosexuality should be illegal, a survey has revealed.

A poll carried out by ICM found that 52% of those quizzed disagreed that homosexuality should be legal in Britain, and 47% said it was unacceptable for a gay or lesbian person to teach in school.
Commissioned for Channel 4, the poll will feature in a documentary called What British Muslims Really Think, presented by Trevor Phillips - former Equality and Human Rights Commission chairman.
The survey of 1,000 people was carried out to try to understand what British Muslims think, and why some young Muslims are being drawn to violence.
It found only 34% would tell the police if they thought someone they knew was getting involved with supporters of terrorism in Syria and 4% said they sympathise with people who take part in suicide bombing to fight injustice.

Mr Phillips says the findings pose profound questions

More than one third - 39% - were also found to be of the view that "wives should always obey their husbands".
A large majority of UK Muslims, 86%, said they felt a strong sense of belonging to Britain, with 94% saying they felt they were able to freely practise their religion.

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But 23% said they would support there being areas of Britain in which Sharia law was introduced.
Responding to the findings, Mr Phillips said they pose profound questions for society and the implications for future relations between Britain's Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
"Hearing what British Muslims themselves think, rather than listening to those purporting to speak on their behalf, is critical if we are to prevent the establishment of a nation within our nation," he said.

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"Many of the results will be troubling to Muslims and non-Muslims alike - and the analysis of the age profile shows us that the social attitudes revealed are unlikely to change quickly.
"The integration of Britain's Muslims will probably be the hardest task we've ever faced. It will require the abandonment of the milk-and-water multiculturalism still so beloved of many, and the adoption of a far more muscular approach to integration."
ICM used face-to-face, in-home research to question a representative sample of the 1,000 UK Muslims.