Muslims most deprived in the UK: report
Regional-UK, Politics, 5/16/2006

Britain's 1.8-million Muslim population suffers from the worst deprivation in the UK, according to a new government-sponsored study.

Muslims were found to be more likely than other religious minorities to be unemployed and live in poor housing in the most deprived parts of England.

Half of Muslims aged over 25 are jobless and one in three live in the worst deprived areas, said the study carried out by researchers from the universities of Derby, Warwick, Birmingham and Oxford.

The community is also particularly vulnerable to long-term illness, poor levels of education and housing conditions.

"Taking the Muslim population as a whole, they face some of the most acute conditions of multiple deprivation," said the report, commissioned to review the prospects of faith communities in England.

The academics were asked to review existing evidence, including information from the 2001 national census on the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities by the Office of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

It found that the three faith communities were likely to remain concentrated in the same areas where they were geographically concentrated across England.

The "dispersal" of the groups is likely to be limited by the desire of families to stay close together and remain near their places of worship, the research said.

Between the 1960s and the 2000s, the regional distribution of the communities had remained largely stable. It included one in three Muslims in England living in the 10 percent ratio of most deprived areas, but where white Christians formed the majority.

A government spokeswoman has reportedly said that the study will be used to encourage equal opportunities for members of all religious communities.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) Monday castigated the findings.

"Despite the recent EU initiative to make religious discrimination in employment illegal, there is still no support-structure in place to address the needs of victims of such discrimination," the IHRC said.

Its chairman Massoud Shadjareh said that it was 'incredible' that such a situation exists in 21st century Britain, whereby it is perfectly legal to discriminate against certain religious communities and not others.

"Despite the Muslim community continuously raising this issue with the government, nothing has been done and as the report shows, Muslims continue to face discrimination in every section of society," he said.

The study, carried out by researchers from the universities of Derby, Warwick, Birmingham and Oxford, found that the UK's 1.8 million Muslims were more likely than other religious minorities to be unemployed with 50 percent of those aged over 25 jobless.

It also confirmed that Muslims were also most likely to live in poor housing in the most deprived parts of England and were particularly vulnerable to long-term illness and poor levels of education.

The Muslim Council of Britain said the research showed the poverty and other deep-seated problems that have contributed to the marginalization and disaffection felt among many young Muslims.

"We hope that this report serves to highlight the need to develop policies that are able reach into these communities and fulfill their needs," MCB Secretary General Sir Iqbal Sacranie said.

The IHRC said that it deals with many victims who have consequently been left to suffer in silence. It called for reformed laws to outlaw religious discrimination in all sectors and service provisions.

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