With the British general elections coming up later this year, party leaders are beginning to look out for voter groups, among others, for Muslims. Observers might expect Muslims to be disappointed with Labour, who went to war in Iraq and initiated strict anti-terror rules that are said to have stigmatized Muslims significantly.
According to an opinion poll conducted by Theos, a “public theology think tank”, the picture however looks still good for Labour. If there were a general election tomorrow, 35 percent of voting Muslims (meaning those Muslims who claim they are more likely than not to vote) would vote Labour. This compares with 22 percent of voting Christians and 23 percent of the entire voting population. By comparison, whereas 30 percent of the voting population would tick the Conservative box, only 13 percent of voting Muslims would do so.
But the elections are still far away, and opinion polls are likely to change even last minute, and so also Labour politicians are best advised to woo Muslim voters.
