Source: The National
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100115/FOREIGN/701149928/1135/WEEKENDER
Mistrust of Muslims living in Britain has reached unprecedented levels, a survey to be published this month will show.
There is concern over the growing influence of Islam on the British way of life with 52 per cent of those surveyed believing that the country is becoming deeply divided along religious lines.
Based on interviews with almost 4,500 people, the British Social Attitudes Survey will show that only a quarter of native Britons now “feel positive” about the presence of an estimated two million Muslims in the UK, most of them immigrants from the Indian subcontinent.
Professor David Voas, the head of population studies at Manchester University who analysed the data, said concern about Islam was growing because of “the degree to which Islam is perceived as a threat to social cohesion”.
Almost half of those interviewed in the government-funded survey said they believed that religious diversity had produced a negative impact on life in the UK.