UK Muslims ‘five times more likely to back Iran than general public’ | UK | News
A rift has widened between British Muslims and the wider public over the Iranian conflict; New polls have found that believers in Islam in the UK are five times more likely to view the Tehran regime favorably than their own citizens.
Data collected by JL Partners in a survey of more than 3,200 people between March 2 and 13 reveals the gap in worldviews that the report’s authors describe as so stark that it amounts to two completely different perspectives on global issues existing side by side in a single country.
Nearly 40 per cent of British Muslims have a positive view of Iran. In the general population, this figure drops to eight percent. Translated into net favorability scores, British Muslims score +22 against the Islamic Republic, while wider public records put them at -42 (a 64-point gap).
The findings were published by Policy Exchange under the title Worlds Apart: British Muslims’ Attitudes to the Iran Conflict, with the authors concluding that British Muslims “hold a very different view of the Iran conflict and international relations than the general population”.
Enemies of America and Israel
This difference becomes even more stark when the focus turns to Washington and Tel Aviv. In the general public’s mind, both countries are already struggling; In terms of net preference, the USA is at -16 and Israel is at -22. Among British Muslims, these figures worsened significantly, falling to -41 for the US and -52 for Israel.
Half of British Muslims said yes when asked whether joint US-Israeli military action against Iran was “absolutely wrong”. Less than one fifth of the society agrees with this view.
The author of the report is Dr. Rakib Ehsan said: “As well as being significantly more hostile towards the US and Israel, British Muslims also have much warmer feelings towards Iran than the general public.
“Some of their general anti-Americanism, their strikingly less negative views of China and Russia, reveals a broader skepticism of Western geopolitics.”
Friendlier towards Beijing and Moscow
A report by the Daily Mail points out how this trend works in reverse when it comes to countries that Western governments regard as enemies. The general public sees China at -22 and Russia at -52; the latter reflects the deep hostility towards Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine. British Muslims, by contrast, give China a net positive rating of +22, while they rate Russia a near-neutral +2.
Besides the attitudinal divide, there is also a significant difference in where each group turns for information. Old TV news dominates the general public, but almost a quarter of British Muslims trust Qatari state broadcaster Al Jazeera as their primary source on the Iran conflict.
Social media platforms play a much larger role in shaping the views of British Muslims than those of the wider population. More than a quarter consume Iran news via TikTok and a similar proportion via Instagram; This is roughly two and a half times the rates seen among the general public. WhatsApp is cited as a source of news among British Muslims three times more than the general population.
Dr Ehsan added: “The relatively young British Muslim population also differs from the general public in how they receive news and information about the Iran conflict, relying more on ‘non-heritage’ sources in the social media space such as Instagram and TikTok than the general population.”
The survey was conducted in the weeks following Iran’s security services’ violent crackdown on domestic protests; The death toll in this incident is estimated by many sources to exceed 30,000.
