There must be a "drastic change" in Government strategy, a campaign group has said, after a report suggested the number of people who feel some political policies negatively affect Muslims is on the rise.

Almost 60% of those surveyed last year by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) believed this, almost double the number who felt that way four years earlier.

A fifth of the practising Muslims asked said they "always" saw politicians indicate that Islam is problematic, and half said they believe politicians condone discriminatory acts against people of their faith.

Verbal and physical assaults against Muslims have increased in the four-year period, the report, entitled Environment of Hate: The New Normal for Muslims in the UK, said.

More than half of people said they had been treated with suspicion or wrongly accused of something.

Almost 90% of those who took part in the survey agreed that those who discriminate against Muslims are "highly driven by media content".

The IHRC, which surveyed 1,782 people across the UK, said the results of the report are "alarming".

The campaign group said: "A drastic change in Government strategy towards British Muslims is required and at the very least a structural understanding of racism has to be developed."

The "landmark" report provides a basis for new initiatives and interventions to tackle the issues and change attitudes, former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said.

"Opening up the political space through building alliances and creating cross-national, cross-class, trans-racial and multi-gendered coalitions for change on this vital issue is central here," he said.

Professor Ian Law from the University of Leeds said the report offers evidence that can be used to understand the rise of Islamophobia.

"This is a much-needed report which uncovers the silent domestic casualties of the war on terror; it carefully combines conceptual rigour and brute facts to lift the lid on the rise of Islamophobia in contemporary British society."

The full report is due to be launched on November 17.