LONDON, 14 November 2007 — A wide-ranging survey on the impact of Islam on London culture commissioned by London’s main evening newspaper, The Evening Standard and published yesterday, perhaps not surprisingly reveals a mixed picture about a divided community on a number of issues.

However the survey, conducted by pollster YouGov, clearly showed that a solid majority of Londoners favor the integration rather than the separation of the capital’s diverse Muslim communities, which encompass Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Cypriot Turks, Moroccans, Egyptians, Kurds, Turks, Somalis, Afghans, Muslims from various parts of Africa, Albanians, Kosovans, Bosnians, and of course Malaysians.

The survey covered a list of hundreds so-called ‘influentials’ — including business leaders, politicians, academics and other prominent individuals, from a cross-section of religious, ethnic and political divides.

To their credit, Londoners are in general a fair and tolerant lot. For instance, some 71 percent of those surveyed said that they would vote for a suitably qualified Muslim candidate to be mayor of London. Some 64 percent feel there is some degree of discrimination against Muslims.

And in the light of the 7/7 terrorist outrages against the London transport system in which 52 innocent people died, and the failed attack on the London underground on 21/7, almost half of Londoners consider Islam to be a generally tolerant faith.

The flipside, however, showed that almost 40 percent of Londoners took the opposite view.

Moreover seven out of 10 blame Islam for the London bombings.

Even on extremist and radical groups, the overwhelming majority of Londoners stressed that political groups with “fundamentalist Islamist agendas” should be banned only if a direct link to terrorism can be proven.

A third of Londoners said that existing faith schools should be allowed to continue but no new ones should be opened; however, an equal number of Londoners want all faith-based schools to be abolished.

The survey in fact preceded a debate last night on Islam in London under ‘The Evening Standard Influentials Debate’ Series, held at the Royal Society of Arts and which was hosted by the newspaper.

In an editorial in yesterday’s Evening Standard, the paper warned that “these findings do not suggest that Londoners are biased against Muslims but they do make clear that many people have some reservations about the nature of Islam — a very different matter.

The message is that while Londoners accept Muslims on their own merits, they have strong reservations about more militant and separatist strains of Islam.”

The survey results in many ways reflect the dichotomy of the role of Muslim organizations and leaders in London.

Many Muslims themselves berate their organizations and leaders for failing to articulate the true essence of Islam and achievements of Muslims in London society.

Instead these organizations and leaders seem to be obsessed with ritual and customs, and with portraying Muslims as the perpetual victims of society.

The disturbing aspects of the survey showed the extent of isolationism of Muslims from London society — almost a quarter of Londoners do not have any Muslim friends; and two thirds only have minimal contact with Muslims in their daily lives.

In terms of the impact of immigration from Muslim countries, some 55 percent want such immigration flows into Britain reduced or stopped.

The survey revealed, for instance, a strong opposition to the use of the veil or the the niqab (the total covering of the face) in schools and other public life.

In fact, 90 percent of respondents, some of whom were Muslims, said that Muslim women teachers should not be allowed to wear the niqab at school; and 84 percent said that students similarly should not be allowed to wear it at school.

While the majority of London Muslims agree that the hijab is a matter of personal religious conscience and choice for Muslim women, they do think that the wearing of the niqab is a step too far especially in a Western secular country.

In many of the cases involving the niqab in the workplace, according to some observers, there was an ulterior religio-political motive to push the issue.

On the positive side, more than half of respondents believe that while there should be no formal censorship, media outlets should avoid gratuitously publishing things that would offend Muslim sensibilities.

Almost three quarters of Londoners said that Muslims have greatly contributed to the business life and economy of London; although only a third stressed that Muslims have contributed to the intellectual and academic life of the capital; while almost 66 percent said that Muslims have hardly contributed anything to community cohesion in London.