The Student Room Group

Were Muslims hated more than blacks before 9/11?

Popular opinion states that from the 1960s to the 1990s black Jamaicans were the most hated and despised ethnic group in Britain. They were the most troublesome and challenging. They carried out a disproportionate amount of crime and drug dealing. They were responsible for the riots in Brixton, Toxteth, and Tottenham during the 1980s. They had the highest levels of educational underachievement of all ethnic groups and difficult to teach children in schools. They were at the forefront of the race relations industry.

Muslims did not really exist as a recognised group in society during this era. Asian Muslims were just lumped in with non-Muslim Asians by the media and the race relations community and referred to as Asians whilst Muslims who were not Asian officially did not exist, or were just referred to by their race rather than religion. Even Arab Muslims were firstly Arabs and secondly Muslims.

The media rarely published anything specific about Muslims or Islam in Britain until the public demonstrations in Bradford against Salman Rushdie and the Satanic Verses in 1989. This was a short lived affair that had little impact on public opinion and the situation died down in the 1990s. Muslims were deemed to be no more (or less) inclined towards terrorism than Jews, or Sikhs, or Hindus were at the time.

Despite the near nonexistence of a recognised group in society for Muslims; a lack of media coverage of Muslims and Islam; and the way that Asians (of all religions) played second fiddle to blacks as far as the race relations community was concerned, were Muslims actually hated by white British people more than black Jamaicans before 9/11?
There was no such as terrorism before 911 in the media compared to today.
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Avatar for Arran90
Arran90
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Original post by ismailali
There was no such as terrorism before 911 in the media compared to today.


There was plenty. The IRA. Non-Muslim American nutjobs like Timothy McVeigh resposible for the Oklahoma City bombings.

To date the IRA are the kings of violent terrorism in Britain.

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