Yesterday, Muslim Census released the results of a survey titled ‘Muslim voting intentions: understanding the voting intentions of Muslims in the UK.’
Muslim Census conducted this study via an online survey that was shared across our multiple social media channels. The survey gathered a total of 1,042 responses between the 23rd – 26th January 2022. These responses were obtained through the following routes:
- Twitter – 678
- Whatsapp – 202
- Linkedin – 63
- Instagram – 45
- Direct survey access – 54
Respondents were asked the following questions:
- Which party did you vote for in the 2019 General Election?
- If there were a general election held tomorrow, which party would you vote for?
- How strongly do you agree with the following statement – “Islamophobia is dealt with appropriately by the Government”
- How strongly do you agree with the following statement – “Islamophobia is dealt with appropriately by the opposition”
Limitations of our methodology and responses:
Gathering responses through our social media channels meant that our sample was not entirely random as we relied on our existing following. As such, considerations of access to the internet, knowledge of Muslim Census as an organisation and various language barriers, amongst others, were not accounted for. This means that our sample was not representative of the entire British Muslim population but rather, it was a representative sample of a portion of the British Muslim population from whom Muslim Census was able to obtain responses from.
Muslims from London and within the 18-24 age group were overrepresented in our sample. To reduce the impact of this overrepresentation, Muslim Census weighted the sample, in accordance with the 2011 UK Census, to better reflect age and location demographics.
Upon reflection, we recognise and acknowledge that we failed to mention this in our initial publication. We have now included these limitations within the article. We also acknowledge that our language could have been framed better to highlight the fact that this was not an election poll but a survey, as well as the limitations of the study more clearly and for that we apologise.
However, despite these limitations within the data, we do believe that our survey provides an insight into how a proportion of the British Muslim electorate currently feel about the current political landscape and we strongly believe these results should not be ignored.
Going forward:
As a volunteer led organisation set up in July 2020, we acknowledge that we are still young and are in the process of learning and growing. We’re incredibly grateful and thankful to those who have reached out to us to make us aware of these limitations and we are always open to having a conversation about how we can improve our practices. As an organisation, our ethos and work is driven by using data to improve the lives of Muslims in the UK and we hope to continue in our mission.
We’ve also learnt an incredible amount over the past few days and we will be taking these learnings and speaking with appropriate specialists and ensuring that we become accredited to allow us to continue with our work and hopefully take us to the next level as an organisation.
We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support and we hope to continue working towards a data driven approach to bettering the lives of British Muslims.
Please feel free to reach out to us here.
Signed, Mo and Sadiq, co-founders of Muslim Census