Muslims abandon Labour over Iraq war

Labour's share of the British Muslim vote has fallen by a half since the last general election because of the UK's role in the Iraq war, according to the results of a special Guardian/ICM poll published today.

The ICM survey of the state of public opinion among Britain's 1.6 million Muslim community was commissioned to mark the start of the Guardian's week-long coverage of the first anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

The poll shows that Tony Blair has paid a heavy political price for the war among traditionally Labour-voting British Muslims. It reveals strong hostility to Mr Blair personally and Labour support slumping from 75% of Muslim voters at the last general election to only 38% now. Most disillusioned former Labour Muslim voters have switched to the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

The ICM survey also shows that the overwhelming majority of British Muslims - 73% - are strongly opposed to terrorist attacks by al-Qaida and other organisations. But a small minority - 13% of British Muslims - disturbingly say they believe further such attacks on the US would be justified.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1169486,00.html

This is a crusade, you know. Our "war president" (as he calls himself!) has really gotten us into some deep doo-doo. Even 13% or British Muslims think further attacks would be justified!! I wonder what the percentages are among the rest of the worlds billion or so Muslims.

How can anyone think the world is a safer place now? Perhaps one hundred million Muslims have been pushed toward radical anti-US sentiment.

Coffee's ready, America. Bush is bad medicine.

He should be on trial for War Crimes.

What was the excuse for all the terror bombings against the USA when bush was not president? Were they justified too?

Both parties are perceived as anti-Muslim by Muslims and both are equally as staunch in their support for 5 million Israelis against 300 million Arabs. Bush is worse but the real problem is that we are perceived as--and in some respects indeed are--anti-Muslim. The policies are the real problem, not a particular president or one war.