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New public opinion poll contributes to debate on UK community relations with Muslims and non-Muslims

London, July 18th, 2006 – Released today, a UK public opinion poll powered by global market intelligence solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) on behalf of the Institute of Governance, Queen’s University, Belfast/Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, and Muslim Voice UK, explores the detail of difference, agreement and shared concerns amongst UK Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.

The results and separate recommendations made by Dr. Colin Irwin from the Institute of Governance at Queen’s University, Belfast, and Ms. Shaista Gohir from Muslim Voice UK are being discussed at a special event organised by GMI at the House of Lords and hosted by Baroness Falkner of Margravine on July 18th, 2006.

A representative sample of 1,360 UK respondents (ages 18+), including 506 Muslims, were surveyed online from April 13th to May 2nd, 2006. They were questioned on their attitudes and experience of Islamophobia; discrimination and integration; the Muslim community; relations between the West and Muslim states; and extremism and the “War on Terror”.

The results of the research were respectively analysed by Dr. Colin Irwin from the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, and affiliated to the Institute of Governance, Queen’s University Belfast (www.peacepolls.org); and Ms. Shaista Gohir, director of Muslim Voice UK (www.mvuk.co.uk), an online polling organisation that aims to bring Muslim opinion in the UK to the fore to foster a greater understanding of UK Muslims. They have subsequently produced their own separate reports and recommendations.

Mitra Asilzadeh, managing director, EMEA client services for GMI in London, explained why GMI supported this work with its market research software suite, panels and services: “Community cohesion is important to all of us. GMI was glad to power this public opinion poll and contribute to the debate around community cohesion. As the Treasury moves towards a comprehensive spending review, we foresee increased demand for data to start identifying solutions to today’s problems in society. We believe that a public opinion poll such as this one, combined with the reports produced by Dr. Irwin and Ms. Gohir, provides the intelligence public entities need to continually improve policy”.

Based on their separate analysis of the research, Dr. Colin Irwin and Ms. Shaista Gohir have set out their two different courses of action for the UK Government and the UK Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

Dr. Colin Irwin makes the point that the UK Government is failing to learn and apply lessons learnt from the Northern Ireland peace process in how it could better manage Muslim affairs in the UK.

He said: “A failure to identify and deal with the problems at the heart of conflicts can lead to increased violence as the UK Government knows from the Troubles. Employing methods pioneered in Northern Ireland, regular peace polling that puts under the microscope both problems and solutions to relations between communities, can help develop policies that will progress understanding and stability. There is an obvious international complexity to this conflict that has had tragic domestic consequences, but the findings of this research suggest there is a cross-community consensus on these issues that offers hope. This is something we should acknowledge and develop into an effective peace process, both here and abroad.”

Ms. Shaista Gohir sets out a Ten-Point Action Plan based on the research. Recommendations include: action by the Muslim community and police; breaking down barriers to integration and misunderstandings; tackling discrimination and Islamophobia; measures to deal with extremism; reviewing foreign policy; protecting human rights and more responsible reporting by the media.

She said: “It was striking that Muslims feel more strongly about international issues than say, their treatment by police or discrimination in the UK. It also appears that Islamophobia, Western foreign policy and human rights abuses of Muslims are contributing substantially to the alienation of UK Muslims. On the other hand, non-Muslims are concerned about extremism, the lack of integration, Muslims not being proud to be British and the lack of tolerance by Muslims. However, the biggest threat to good Muslim and non-Muslim community relations is the misinformation on Islam in the media”.

About GMI

GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) is the only company that provides comprehensive integrated solutions for global market intelligence for both market research firms and corporate market research departments at Global 2000 companies. Solutions include Net-MR®, a suite of software tools to manage and automate research throughout the project lifecycle, desktop analysis tools, 24x7x365 service bureau capabilities, and one of the world's largest, highly profiled, double opt-in managed panels, spanning across 200 countries. In addition, GMI offers high-value, real-time enterprise feedback solutions for customer, partner and employee programs. Founded in 1999 with world headquarters in Seattle, Wash., GMI has operations on five continents. For more information, please visit www.gmi-mr.com or email us.