Sixty per cent of all Australians say they would be concerned if a relative married a Muslim, according to a new university research project tracking attitudes to Islam.
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It also found that more than a third of people would not object to Muslims being searched more thoroughly at airports than other people.
And a quarter would not be fazed if all anti-terror efforts were focused exclusively on Muslims.
The study comes on the heels of a poll last week that found half of all Australians support a ban on Muslim immigration.
The Deakin University research found concern around Muslims is twice that of any other group but a third of respondents - 33 per cent - would also have reservations with a Jew marrying into their family.
By comparison, just 8.1 per cent would take issue with a Christian fiancee.
The survey also found a large proportion of people did not express any disagreement when presented with what could be considered Islamophobic statements. They included:
- practicing Muslims do not fit Australian society (41 per cent either agreed or were undecided)
- practicing Muslims pose a threat to Australian society (40 per cent);
- practicing Muslims should be searched more thoroughly than others in airports and stations (36 per cent.)
A little over a quarter of respondents did not reject the assertion that Australia's counter-terrorism policies should focus exclusively on Muslims.
The Deakin study, which is being funded by the Australian Research Council, used data collected in the long-running Australian Survey of Social Attitudes, taken a little over a month ago.
Research authors, who presented initial findings at the University of NSW on Monday, described Islamophobia as "alive and well" in Australia.
Matteo Vergani, a research fellow at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, said the strong message from the data is that people who don't know any Muslims or interact with any Muslims in the community felt the most fear around terrorism.
People who know Muslims and more about Islam as a religion are the ones who don't feel threatened
"People who know Muslims and more about Islam as a religion are the ones who don't feel threatened," he said.
The 304 people surveyed in depth were given five questions about the central tenets of Islam to gauge their knowledge of the religion.
Dr Vergani said the data was preliminary but he believed it was a reliable "national snapshot", with three more tranches of the survey to be conducted over the remainder of the year.
"The result is really similar to the Essential poll of last week," he said.
The most common reasons for wanting an immigration ban, that poll found, were fears over terrorism and a belief that Muslim migrants do not integrate into society nor share Australian values.
Attitudes to Muslims have been under the microscope since the Essential poll's surprise finding.
On Monday on ABC's Q&A program, Labor's Penny Wong fiercely defended her right to condemn comments made by Pauline Hanson, who has called for a halt to Muslim immigration and suggested the country was being "swamped".
"How can I argue that Pauline Hanson peddles prejudice and fear? Because I look at what she says. I remember the debate in the '90s, when we [Asians] were the ones who were swamping Australia, and we were the ones who were going to make this a dreadful place," she said.
She said Australian Muslims had the right to live their lives without being "vilified".
smh.com.au
