Britis more suspicious of Muslims than Yanks and Europeans says survey…but what does it all mean Basil?

It means that Brits hate Muslims more than Americans and the rest of Europe! Oh obviously!

UK more suspicious of Muslims than America and rest of EU

Britons are more suspicious of Muslims than Americans and other Europeans, according to a poll for the Financial Times. Only 59 per cent of Britons thought it possible to be both a Muslim and a citizen of their country, a smaller proportion than in France, Germany, Spain, Italy or the US – the other countries polled by Harris Interactive.

The findings suggest that terrorist plots against the UK, including the London bombings of July 7 2005, have hardened British attitudes towards Muslims. Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain blamed the findings on what he called “a vicious campaign” by the press against the Muslim community.

Finanical Times, 20 August 2007

See also “Religious fault line divides Europeans” in the same issue.

Read Harris poll (pdf) here

Well that’s what the paranoid “anti Muslim racism is everywhere” Islamophobiawatchers will be saying!

But as with all surveys you have to take the findings with a pinch of salt. It’s an unfortunate situation but it doesn’t show that everytime a Muslim gets on a tube train or a bus with a rucksak everyone thinks he must be a terrorists who’s about to blow them to kingdom come!

The survey highlights the 7/7 bombings as a factor in causing Brits to be more suspicious of Muslims but the Muslim Asscoation of Britain blames it all on the press.

Well the right-wing tabloid press are hardly bastions of racial harmony and community relations but no thought that a few Muslims blowing up people on tubes and buses might have an effect on how Muslims are viewed? Of course putting all Muslims under suspicion is wrong but when some people from certain groups do bad things it unfortunatly impacts on others within that group.