"Most UK Muslims living in hateful environment"

A new survey says most British Muslims believe that misguided government policies and biased media coverage have created an "environment of hate" that affects their daily lives.

The survey conducted by the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission also showed that everyday life for Muslims in Britain is characterized by rising levels of abuse, discrimination and violence.

About 1,782 British Muslims took part in the survey talking about their experience of "hostility and discrimination." According to the group, the survey “paints a disturbing picture of a community under siege from the prevailing winds of racial and religious bigotry."

The results of the survey are expected to be published next week in a report named “Environment of Hate”.

According to the report, more than 80 percent of respondents said they had seen "Islamophobia directed at someone else," up from 50 percent in 2010, while the proportion who had witnessed "negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims" rose from 69 percent to 93 percent.

Meanwhile, some 56 percent of the Muslims reported experiencing verbal abuse, and 18 percent said they had been victims of physical assault.

The authors of the report conclude that the "hate environment" has been "deliberately whipped up by the media, politicians and the commentariat, the purpose of which is to 'otherize' Muslims and legitimize discriminatory treatment of them through official policy."

The group believes that the government is wrong to focus on individual hate crimes, which are "not random acts of deranged individuals" but acts "provoked by an environment of hatred."

"What we really need is a culture change," one of the report's authors, Arzu Merali said.

"We have an environment now, where Muslim people feel they are suspected and where life is increasingly difficult… The impact of government policies, in particular those related with security, have really had an impact on silencing Muslims - not from a point of view of just talking about political issues, but even to report anti-Muslim hatred," she added.

This comes as British Prime Minister David Cameron promised last month more support for Muslims after police recorded a 43 percent rise in religious hate crime in the year to March.

Cameron asked police forces to record anti-Muslim hate crimes in a separate category, giving such crimes the same status as anti-Semitic attacks, the government said.

"Unlike what the UK government claims, there is no room for freedom of religion in the UK society,” London-based political commentator Shabbir Hassanally told Press TV’s UK Desk.

He went on saying that the British Muslims have a hard life in the UK society as they are besieged by hostile policies of the government.

He stressed that most politicians turn a blind eye to the demands of the Muslims. 

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