STUDY: NEARLY HALF OF AUSTRALIA IS ANTI-MUSLIM

Sydney, 12 Jumadal Awwal 1436/3 March 2015 (MINA) – A decade-long national study has found that nearly 50 per cent of Australians identify themselves as having anti-Muslim attitudes.

Researchers from universities across the country polled thousands of people about their attitudes to different cultures and whether they had experienced racism, Muslim Village quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The research found around one in 10 Australians identified themselves as prejudiced against other cultures.

About one-quarter of those surveyed said they had anti-Semitic or anti-Asian attitudes, while a slightly larger number were prejudiced against Aborigines.

Anti-Muslim sentiment was even higher, at 48.6 per cent.

Lead researcher Professor Kevin Dunn from the University of Western Sydney says recent political rhetoric has not helped.

“If you continue to speak about a group as a problem, whether that be asylum seekers or Muslims, that will be cast within the public mind,” he said.

New South Wales was the state most intolerant of Muslims, with just over 54 per cent of people expressing prejudice.

The president of the Council of International Students, Robert Atcheson, says the survey is another blow to Australia’s already-damaged reputation.

“If you’re an international student that’s looking at coming to Australia, or Canada or UK or the US, that could definitely sway their decision to go somewhere else,” he said. (T/P006/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)