A growing number of young Muslims want Islamic schools and Sharia law brought into Britain, according to a poll. The survey found more young Muslims want women to wear the veil in public compared to the feeling gauged among their parents.The majority of Muslims feel they have as much, if not more, in common with non-Muslims in the UK than with Muslims abroad.But thisfigure fell from 71% among over-55s to 62% among 16-24 year olds, the survey for independent think-tank Policy Exchange found.
Poll on Muslim identity
The percentage who said they would prefer to send their children to Islamic state schools increased from 19% for older people to 37% of the younger group.
The number who said they would prefer to live under Sharia law than British law increased from 17% of over-55s to 37% of 16-24-year-olds.
Munira Mirza, the lead author of the report, said the results suggested Government policy was to blame for sharpening divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims.
She said: "The emergence of a strong Muslim identity in Britain is, in part, a result of multicultural policies implemented since the 1980s which have emphasised difference at the expense of shared national identity and divided people along ethnic, religious and cultural lines."
According to the poll, 74% of 16-24-year-olds prefer Muslim women to choose to wear the hijab compared with only 28% of over 55s.
And while 7% of all those surveyed "admire organisations like al Qaeda that are prepared to fight the West", the figure increased from 3% of over-55s to 13% among the younger group.
Ms Mirza said: "There is clearly a conflict within British Islam between a moderate majority that accepts the norms of Western democracy and a growing minority that does not."
