Muslim Hate On The Rise, Poll Finds

A YouGov survey for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in mid‑July 2025 finds that Islamophobia is on the rise across the UK, fuelled by far-right misinformation and racist scapegoating.

41% of UK adults say Muslim immigrants have a negative impact, 53% believe Islam is incompatible with British values, 31% think Islam promotes violence and only 24% say Muslim immigrants bring a positive impact.

The poll of 2,130 adults was published ahead of the 59th Jalsa Salana in Hampshire, which hosted more than 40,000 guests at the weekend.

Its worrying figures are tainted by the fact that many respondents have little or no idea what Islam is actually about; many are similarly adrift when it comes to 'British values' - having no clear idea what these are, they are easy prey for nebulous Reform-type notions which basically amount to 'brown people are all dangerous'.

The figures come as many in Britain report an atmosphere shaped by one‑sided headlines and social media posts; the coverage given to Donald Trump's attacks on Sadiq Khan on Monday - and of course Keir Starmer's percieved lack of response to it - and the effect of channels like GB News, which never misses an opportunity to describe anything and everything concerning as 'Islamist'.

Reform's handful of MPs seem to spend their entire lives on social media, posting very simple, short statements like 'Britain is lawless' or 'Take back control of our streets'; the implication, clearly, being 'this is ALL the fault of migrants' and dark-skinned people make our streets unsafe'. Maybe Britain does have a problem with crime - but it isn't caused by Muslim people.

Nigel Farage posted an advert at the weekend, a vacancy for a Shariah Law Administrator in a Manchester community centre, as evidence that 'our country and its values are being destroyed'. He implied that it being on a DWP jobsearch site somehow linked it to the government.

It's a paperwork job, basically, filling in forms and filing - but Nigel, pearls in hand, evinced such foaming outrage that you'd think it meant his wife was going to be stoned to death as an infidel.

As was pointed out to him, Mr Farage seemed to have no such issues with the Beth Din or Rabbinical Courts, which have been active in the UK since the early 1700s, or indeed with the abortion ban taught in the Catholic faith, or the blood transfusion ban within Jehovah's Witnesses. His outrage, it seems, is reserved for religions whose followers are mainly dark-skinned...

Zoe Williams of The Guardian called the outcome of the polling “bleak reading”, noting that more people now view all Muslims negatively rather than isolating extremists. An imam working with the Ahmadiyya Community described the results as deeply worrying and traced fear back to a lack of understanding about daily Muslim life.

Experts say this pattern is hardly new. After the Paris attacks in 2015, polls showed no drop in hostility towards Muslims and, in some cases, a rise in suspicion. Young people held more tolerant views back then, a trend echoed today among Britons aged 18–24, half of whom now see Islam as compatible with British values, compared with just 14% of those over 65. Little wonder, perhaps, that the likes of Reform and GB News don't want schools teaching 'our children' about the positive effects of diversity.

Academic Shabna Begum of the Runnymede Trust points to last year’s Southport riots, when false claims about a Muslim attacker sparked days of violence and mosque attacks. She argues that dehumanising political and media discourse laid the ground for those disturbances.

Ably assisted by the current rash of far-right-fuelled demonstrations at hotels housing asylum seekers, carefully spun as 'worried local parents' rather than 'racist thugs spurred by the likes of Tommy Robinson, some of whom live nowhere near the affected areas'

A glance overseas shows a similar split. In the United States, a 2016 Pew Research Centre survey found that 4% of adults believed Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence - almost identical to British figures . In both countries, partisan divides have widened, with conservatives far more likely to hold negative views.

What the right sees as concerns about national identity and resource strain, many on the left view as fuelled by decades of skewed reporting. Left‑wing commentators call for better representation of Muslim contributions in the NHS, education and public services. They welcome events like Jalsa Salana, which display the Union flag alongside the Ahmadiyya flag to signal faith and citizenship in harmony.

If those fears are not addressed, experts warn, public divisions could harden further. Yet the younger generation’s more open attitudes offer hope. As Britain continues to grapple with immigration and integration, there remains a chance to shift the story from fear to understanding - and to remind readers that Britain’s strength lies in its diversity.

References:

Dan Kitwood/​Getty Images, “Islamophobia isn’t just socially acceptable in the UK now – it’s flourishing. How did this happen?”, The Guardian, 25 July 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/25/islamaphobia-socially-acceptable-uk-muslim-values-britain-yougov-poll

YouGov plc, “YouGov Poll Reveals Muslims Least Favoured Immigrants in Britain, by Religion”, MarketScreener, 25 July 2025, https://www.marketscreener.com/news/yougov-poll-reveals-muslims-least-favoured-immigrants-in-britain-by-religion-ce7c5fdad08bf125

“Survey Reveals Significant Anti-Muslim Sentiment Ahead of UK Islamic Convention”, Shiawaves, 26 July 2025, https://shiawaves.com/english/uncategorized/129648-survey-reveals-significant-anti-muslim-sentiment-ahead-of-uk-islamic-convention/

“After Paris: The surprising resilience of British attitudes”, YouGov, 23 December 2015, https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/14254-after-paris-surprising-resilience-british-attitude

“Islamophobia in the United Kingdom”, Wikipedia, last updated July 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia_in_the_United_Kingdom

Bruce Drake, “How the U.S. general public views Muslims and Islam”, Pew Research Center, 26 July 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/07/26/how-the-u-s-general-public-views-muslims-and-islam/