A massive survey of nearly 7000 Britons found that people thought of terrorism and terror before the word ‘religion’ when asked about Islam and Muslims.
The YouGov poll revealed that the phrases ‘misogynistic’ and ‘extremist’ also ranked ahead of phrases such as ‘religious’, ‘Allah’, or ‘peace’.
Britain’s Press Association reports:
“Some 12 per cent said terror, terrorist or terrorism – the most frequently given phrase – ahead of faith (11pc), mosque (9pc), Koran (8pc) and religious (8pc).
“Meanwhile, 5pc of people said extremist or misogynist, while Allah, Mohammed and prayer were also on 5pc.]
…
“Jehangir Malik, the UK director of Islamic Relief, which commissioned the research, said: ‘The results of this poll are extremely worrying because they show that public attitudes towards Muslims are hugely negative and attitudes towards refugees have hardened significantly’.”
But the news should perhaps come as no surprise given the endless headlines to do with Middle East and North African migrants, as well as the daily news stories about British Muslims heading to Syria or Iraq to fight alongside ISIS.
Islamic Relief, the UK-based charity that commissioned the research, was banned by the United Arab Emirates for being a “terrorist organisation”. Israel also alleged that the group had links to Gaza-based terror group Hamas, though the group denies the links.
Islamic Relief also has a hugely negative rating on YouGov’s own brand profile tracker, with just 7 per cent of people surveyed claiming they feel positive about the group.
The i100 website lists the words that Britons most commonly associated with the word ‘Muslim’:
- Terror/terrorism/terrorist 12%
- A religion/belief system/faith 11%
- Mosque 9%
- Koran/quaran (sic) 8%
- Religious 8%
- Islam 6%
- Extreme/extremism/extremist 5%
- Allah 5%
- Mohamed/mohammad 5%
- Prayer/praying 5%
- Anti-women/chauvanistic (sic)/Misogynistic 5%
- Devout 4%
- Peace/peacful (sic) 4%
- Ramadan 4%
- Fanatic 4%
- Burka/Burqa 3%
- Intolerant 3%
- Strict 3%
- Hijab 3%
- Halal 2%
- Mecca 2%
- Misunderstood 2%
- Middle east 2%
- Radical 2%
- Family 2%
- Asian 2%
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