Islamic schools should be allowed to FORCE girls to wear hijab, nearly half of Muslims say
A POLL has revealed nearly half of Muslims believe Islamic schools should be able to force students to wear the hijab.
In the survey by ICM of 3,000 Muslims, 44 per cent said they thought staff at the schools should be able to able to insist on headdresses as part of the official uniform.
Despite the majority in the survey wanting full integration with British culture, the report by Policy Exchange has raised concern over some beliefs, including just one in 24 believing al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks.
A Labour MP said some of the views on conspiracy theories were "holding back the Muslim community".
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Too many people seem ready to believe that these events are being deliberately organised and manipulated
The poll said 31 per cent of Muslims thought the United States government was behind the 9/11 terror attacks and seven per cent blamed Jewish people, while just four per cent believed al Qaida was responsible, the think-tank said.
It found that 26 per cent of Muslims did not believe in extremism and 48 per cent would not turn to the police if someone close to them became involved with people linked to Syrian terrorism, the research revealed.
British Muslims also have a "deeply worrying" belief in conspiracy theories and almost half would not go to the police if they knew someone with links to Islamic State (ISIS), the major study has found.
As well as the belief students could be made to wear religious garbs in Islamic schools, one in 10 said they opposed banning tutors who promoted extremist views.
Attitudes towards many issues, such as the NHS, unemployment and immigration, are broadly in line with the rest of the population, however, according to the Policy Exchange study.
Labour's Khalid Mahmood said the findings made clear that British Muslims were no different in their views in many areas to the rest of the population but raised concerns over the significant numbers who doubted the existence of extremism.
In a foreword to the report, the shadow Europe minister said: "Even more startling is the fact that so many British Muslims seem ready to entertain wild and outlandish conspiracy theories about the way the world works, believing that dark forces are at work to 'do us down' as Muslims.
"From the attacks of 9/11, down to the more recent conflict in Syria, too many people seem ready to believe that these events are being deliberately organised and manipulated - whether by the American Government, Jews, or some other force - with the express intention of damaging Muslims."
The poll also found four in 10 wanted some form of Sharia law in Britain.
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"Of course, there is no denying that for many British Muslims, problems of racism, harassment and Islamophobia are a serious cause of worry. But it is deeply troubling that this seems to have led a not-insignificant minority to believe that the world is at the mercy of the machinations of dark, anti-Muslim forces.
"This readiness to believe in conspiracy theories and the mentality of victimhood to which it speaks is having a pernicious effect on British Muslims and the way they see the world. It is holding us back - as a community - and ensuring that we remain locked in a paranoid and at times fearful world view."
