LONDON: Labour's share of the British Muslim vote has fallen by a half since the last general election because of the UK's role in the Iraq war, according to the results of a special Guardian/ICM poll published on Monday.

The ICM survey of the state of public opinion among Britain's 1.6 million Muslim community was commissioned to mark the start of the Guardian's week-long coverage of the first anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

The poll shows that Tony Blair has paid a heavy political price for the war among traditionally Labour-voting British Muslims. It reveals strong hostility to Mr Blair personally and Labour support slumping from 75 per cent of Muslim voters at the last general election to only 38 per cent now. Most disillusioned former Labour Muslim voters have switched to the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

The ICM survey also shows that the overwhelming majority of British Muslims - 73 per cent - are strongly opposed to terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda and other organizations. But a small minority - 13 per cent of British Muslims - disturbingly say they believe further such attacks on the US would be justified.

The special poll, based on interviews with 500 British Muslims, reveals a community where opposition to the Iraq war is running at more than 80 per cent, scepticism of US motives in Iraq is widespread, and there is a strong feeling that American and British troops should get out of Iraq immediately.

Stressing that most of the people polled were questioned before the Madrid bombings, Iqbal Sacranie, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "The 13 per cent reflects emotions are running high. But the percentage of Muslims that would support attacks when they are taking place would be much, much lower."

He said: "British Muslims are much more frustrated than the general population with US foreign policy. At the end of the day it's a Muslim population around the world on the receiving end of trouble and bias in terms of US policy."

In sharp contrast, the results of the regular monthly Guardian/ICM poll of all voters, also published on Monday, show public opinion among all British voters is fairly evenly split on whether the war was justified, and a large majority think British and US troops should stay in Iraq as long as is necessary to get the job done. The poll also shows Labour maintaining a two-point lead over the Conservatives.

Traditionally more than 70 per cent of the Muslim community voted for Labour in general elections in the 1980s and 1990s. Seventy-five per cent of those surveyed by ICM said they had voted Labour at the last general election, compared with 14 per cent for the Conservatives, 10 per cent for the Liberal Democrats and one per cent for other parties.

Now only 38 per cent of British Muslims say they intend to vote Labour, with the Lib Dems a close second on 36 per cent. The Tories would pick up 25 per cent of the Muslim vote.

The depth of this disillusionment with Labour is underlined by Mr Blair's personal ratings. Among all voters he has a net rating this month of minus 20 points, with 37 per cent happy with the job he is doing as prime minister and 57 per cent unhappy.

Among Muslim voters this falls to a personal rating of minus 58 points, with only 17 per cent satisfied with the job Mr Blair is doing and 75 per cent saying they are dissatisfied with him.

There is a similar gap between the views of Muslim and other voters on the question of whether the war was justified. Eighty per cent of Muslim voters say it was not justified, compared with 42 per cent of all voters. Only 10 per cent of Muslim voters say it was justified, compared with 46 per cent of all voters.

In the light of these results it is perhaps unsurprising to discover that 82 per cent of British Muslims question US motives and do not believe the Americans when they say they want to create an independent democratic sovereign state in Iraq.

More than half of British Muslims - 55 per cent - say that they believe community relations with non-Muslims have got worse since the start of the Iraq war a year ago. -Dawn/The Guardian News Service.