More than a third of Muslims say they're subjected to Islamophobia every day in Scotland

More than a third of Muslims in Scotland say they experience Islamophobia on a daily basis.

Holyrood's cross-party group on Islamophobia found more than 80% had been subjected to abuse because of their faith at some stage.

The research found some have resorted to dressing differently, changing their accents and avoiding city centre streets, public transport and swimming pools in a bid to escape abuse.

Others said they have even changed their name to sound “less Muslim”.

Muslims reported they fear being branded a “terrorist” or “extremist”, while females are particularly concerned they could have their hijab pulled off in public.

Anas Sarwar, chairman of the cross-party group on Islamophobia, said the early findings from the research - which was carried out together with Newcastle University - made for “sobering reading”.

The Glasgow MSP said while Scots “pride ourselves on being a welcome and tolerant country” the report “demonstrates how much more work we have to do”.

He said: “There are people in Scotland who feel scared to leave their homes for fear of verbal of physical attack, are withdrawing from public services with devastating knock-on consequences on their health and education, and feel they are outsiders in their own country.

“This should shame us all.

“We have already established that Scotland is not immune from Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred, and now we know just how widespread it is.”

A total of 435 people took part in the research, including 344 who described themselves as being Muslim.

Of those Muslim respondents, 35.5% said they face abuse because of their faith every day, while 41.3% said they had to deal with such incidents “regularly”.

Overall, 83.4% of Muslim respondents said they had experienced Islamophobia - with 78.8% saying they believed the problem was getting worse in Scotland.

More than three-quarters of Muslims told how they had been verbally abused, with more than a third having faced the problem at work and 32.6% targeted on social media.

Just over three-fifths said they had changed their behaviour as a result of such attacks.

Mr Sarwar said the findings would inform the next phase of the cross-party group's inquiry “in which we must redouble efforts to challenge and overcome hatred and prejudice”.

He called on politicians to take part in this “because the fight against hate is a fight for all of us”.

Professor Peter Hopkins, of Newcastle University, was involved in the work after spending almost 20 years researching issues of racism and Islamophobia in Scotland.

He said: “The initial findings emerging from the inquiry demonstrate that Scotland has a serious issue when it comes to everyday racism and Islamophobia.”

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