"What this [polling] highlights is that the community hasn't progressed from what was happening in the 80s and ... that they have been isolated without being able to have further integration," he said. Mahmood argued that this was in large part due to a shortage of housing, which had led to overcrowding in British Asian areas. "It's not for the want of trying," he added.
Shaista Gohir, the chair of the Muslim Women's Network UK, said interviews with other religious groups such as devout Jews and Christians would probably reveal similar social attitudes to those thrown up by the polling. She said that although any prejudice against gay people was unacceptable, the fact that nearly 50% of Muslims did not think homosexuality should be illegal was a sign that attitudes were shifting.
"Although they may not accept it from a religious point of view, [Muslims] accept that people should be able to have the freedom and right not be discriminated against and and live their lives," said Gohir, adding that LGBT Muslims were beginning to speak out publicly and increasing numbers of Muslim families were having to come to terms with family members coming out as gay.
She said the findings on women's issues did not reflect changing attitudes among younger generations of British Muslims, arguing that younger Muslim women were coming to better understand what their rights were according to the teachings of
Islam.