With war on terror, Blair losing battle for hearts of British Muslims: pol

[maddezmom]

LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) and his Labour Party have dramatically lost the support of British Muslims, who have switched allegiance to the opposition Liberal Democrats, according to a poll published.


Eighty percent of the country's Muslims reject Blair's claims that the war on terror was not against Islam, up from 68 percent in March, according to an ICM poll carried out for the Guardian newspaper.


Labour was once seen as the natural home of ethnic minority voters, with an estimated 75 percent of Muslims who voted at the last election thought to have backed Blair, the ICM poll said.


However, Labour has dropped six points to 32 percent since March, while the main opposition Conservative Party has dropped nine points to 16 percent. The Liberal Democrats, Britain's third party, are up five on 41 percent.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1538&ncid=732&e=6&u=/afp/20041129/wl_uk_afp/britain_politics_muslims