UK most understanding destination for Muslims

The Muslim population in the UK has hit 2.4 million, primarily because Britain is widely believed to be the best country in Europe for practising the Islamic faith.

A new report has shown that in the UK there are 1.3 British born Muslims, mostly the offspring of new migrants, in addition to 1.1 Muslim immigrants. When quizzed on their choice of destination Muslims have claimed that there was more hostility to Islam in other European nations than in Britain, and that the UK government was on the whole sympathetic.

The findings were immediately jumped on by critics who say that the report confirms that the Labour Government’s multicultural ambitions and lenient immigration laws in the past are evidence of pandering to Islam. Migrationwatch member Sir Alan Green said that the Muslim population was probably higher than the figures indicate and that the government had influenced all of British society with its policies through its promotion of immigration. He also added that illegal immigrants were unlikely to respond to any surveys linked to the government.

The research into the Muslim population is part of a ‘faith map’ set to be published next month and is the brainchild of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a group with close ties to 10 Downing Street. The authors admit that increased immigration presents challenges for social cohesion and confirmed that an increase of some 275,000 Muslims has taken place in the past decade in the UK.

The faith map will show that the total of Britain’s ‘other’ religious affiliations is an estimated 4.5 million.