London, England - Muslims in London not only have almost twice as much confidence in the government as the wider public, but greater faith in the police, judicial and electoral system, a poll suggested Tuesday.
Pollsters Gallup also found that a greater proportion of Muslims living in London renounced violence than did the general population, and a higher percentage felt a strong sense of loyalty towards Britain.
Gallup are to release the full findings on Wednesday, but the data already released suggest that media reports characterising the Muslim community as radicalised, alienated and disenfranchised may be wide of the mark.
These results suggest that Britain's 1.56 million-strong Muslim community has a far more positive outlook.
The results form part of a global survey of attitudes in 40 Muslim countries.
It looked at how integrated Muslims were in countries such as Britain, France and Germany and the extent they related to their country, religion and ethnicity.
London is home to just over 607,000 Muslims -- or 8.5 percent of the capital's population -- according to the 2001 Census. Forty percent were born in Britain.
The survey found that:
-- 81 percent of London Muslims said violence was completely unjustified, even if used in a "noble cause" compared to 72 percent of the general public
-- 74 percent said they were loyal to Britain compared to 45 percent of non-Muslims.
-- 82 percent respected other religions, as opposed to 54 percent of the wider public.
-- 78 percent versus 69 percent had confidence in the police; for the government, judicial system and elections the figures were 64 percent vs 36 percent, 67 percent vs 55 percent and 73 percent vs 60 percent.
But despite apparently more relaxed attitudes, Muslims in the capital were twice as likely than non-Muslims to say they had experienced racial or religious discrimination in the last year.
And there were echoes of previous polls which suggested that British foreign policy shapes Muslim attitudes: 59 percent said the ouster of
Saddam Hussein was unjustified, as opposed to 40 percent of the wider public.
Only 14 percent thought the invasion of
Iraq was justified, compared with 23 percent of non-Muslims.
:: Gallup interviewed 500 Muslims in London between November and January and 1,200 members of the British public between December and January.
Gallup said the attitudes of Muslims in London may not be reflected in the rest of the country, The Times newspaper reported.