Attitudes towards Muslims from non-Muslims in the UK: willingness to engage and discuss issues across Muslim and ethnic minority communities
Existing literature converges on a picture of deteriorating attitudes towards Muslims in the UK, and on Muslims being the most prejudiced-against group compared to other minority groups in the UK. Notably, negativity is directed towards Muslims not only from the white British majority, but also from other minority groups. A growing experimental literature shows that these attitudes are likely to translate into every day discrimination against Muslims. Although the evidence linking anti-Muslim sentiment with how the media cover Muslim related affairs mostly hails from the US, we can make a reasonable assumption that media negativity observable also in the UK forms part of the reason behind the growing hostility. In particular, misconstruing of Muslim public opinion, promulgating the view that Muslims fail to integrate, and the link between Muslims and the terrorist threat are the main areas where the media most likely impact on anti-Muslim sentiment.