Reflecting a worrying level of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the UK, a new study has found that almost a third of school pupils believe ‘Muslims are taking over our country’, amid unprecedented level of negative attitudes towards Muslims and immigrants.
“This survey shows that this is fuelled by a totally distorted view of the number of immigrants and Muslims living in the UK,” Ged Grabby, chief executive of charity Show Racism the Red Card (SRTRC), told The Guardian. The agency surveyed almost 6,000 children aged 10 to 16 across England to find that negative attitudes towards migrants and Muslims were widespread among school pupils.
Moreover, 49 percent of the surveyed children agreed with the statement that migration was out of control or not being managed properly. The results were revealed shortly after Labour MP Tristam Hunt’s embarrassing encounter with a schoolchild, who told the shadow education minister that he would vote far-right Independence Party (UKIP) because he would “like to get all the foreigners out of the country.”
