One in six Britons think growth of Muslim population is ‘threat to UK culture’, study finds

One in six Britons believe the growth of the Muslim population “poses a foundational threat to UK culture”, with hostile attitudes towards Muslims at risk of being normalised, a study has found.

The study by the social integration thinktank British Future and the British Muslim Trust – the government’s official partner in monitoring Islamophobia – found that most Muslims (73%) think the UK is a good place to be Muslim, and that a majority of Britons (52%) believe Muslims are as British as white non-Muslims.

However, 17% of the wider public “strongly agree” that “the growth in the Muslim population poses a foundational threat to UK culture”, while 19% do not agree that “Muslims born in this country are as British as white, non-Muslim people born here.”

The British Muslim Trust launched in July last year, starting a helpline for anti-Muslim hate crimes and meeting people across the country.

Its director, Akeela Ahmed, said that “time and again”, Muslims were saying they felt “their place and identity” was being questioned and scrutinised in ways it hadn’t been before, when they had integrated and worked and studied hard.

Ahmed warned in the report that, while British Muslims continued to express “a deep sense of belonging to this country”, if the next generation grew up doubting that this was their home, “it will have unintended consequences on social cohesion”.

She added: “Two threads run through this evidence. The online world is plainly shaping attitudes, carrying misinformation and hostility further and faster than ever before.

“Too many people simply do not know a Muslim – the interpersonal contact and connection that builds trust is missing from their daily lives. Both must be addressed … It is in those local relationships, more than anywhere else, that prejudice is undone.”

The survey of attitudes drew on a representative sample of 2,000 people to inform the report, Understanding Anti-Muslim Hostility: Foundations for Action, which examines social attitudes rather than making detailed policy recommendations.

The research found 57% of the public agreed with the statement: “It is possible for Muslims and non-Muslims to live well together in towns and cities around the UK.”

It found that a majority of British Muslims (61%) – of whom about 1,000 were surveyed – felt less safe after the first Unite the Kingdom rally was held in September last year, rising to 69% of Muslim women.

Nonetheless, the research found confidence in Muslims’ sense of British identity, with 69% of Muslims agreeing that British-born Muslims were “as British as white, non-Muslim people born here”.