Majority of British Muslims oppose attacks against those who publish Muhammad cartoons

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25th February 2015 13:08 - Public Consultation

A survey commissioned by the BBC has found that the majority of Muslims in Britain oppose attacks against those publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The survey also discovered that most British Muslims do not sympathise with those who desire to fight Western ideology.  However, 27 per cent of the 1,000 British Muslims surveyed, claimed that they partly agreed with the motives behind the attack on the satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Of the respondents, 4 in 5 (80 per cent) claimed that they were profoundly offended by the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, which were published by the Parisian magazine.

However, when questioned about the Paris attacks, 68 per cent agreed that the violence against the magazine could “never be justified”.  On the other hand, nearly a quarter (24 per cent) disagreed.

Of those questioned, 32 per cent claimed that they were not shocked to hear of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo.

When questioned about how discrimination affects them personally, nearly 50 per cent of Muslims in Britain claimed that they face prejudice because of their religion. They claimed that they are aware that Britain is becoming increasingly intolerant of Islam, which is making it harder to be Muslim and live in the UK.

Approximately 35 per cent believed that British people do not trust Muslims and a further 1 in 5 felt that Western society and Islam would never be harmonious.

Worryingly, 1 in 5 Muslim women admitted that they do not feel safe in Britain, compared with 1 in 10 Muslim men.

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