Muslim Stereotypes

Historically, Muslims have often been the targets of abuse and ridicule, usually because they dress differently and practise a different faith, however, due to recent repeated terrorist acts by some extreme radicals and the Islamic state (ISIS), the fear and hatred has increased and developed into prejudice, which is an unfavourable attitude towards a social group and its members. After the terrorist attack in London, anti-Islamic attitudes were rampant, resulting in comments like the one above, and reinforcing group distinctions. People are more likely to categorise themselves as a certain social group, when they perceive the difference between themselves and people in out-groups, as more significant than differences within the in-group (the

Stereotypes come into operation if they make sense of the situation and if they are accessible in situation (with obvious cues) (Oakes, 1987), the tweeter expected that Muslims would be indifferent to the situation, so that what he sees when looking at the picture, even ignoring contradictory evidence, such as the horrified look on the woman’s face. To make a distinction between social groups, an individual will mainly perceive the negative characteristics among out-group members and simultaneously perceive mainly the positive characteristics among in-group members – ultimately a process of generalisation will occur, where the negative characteristics of an individual will be attributed to the whole out-group (Brown, 1995). This could explain why he viewed the woman as apathetic, compared to the ‘white’ people who were also doing nothing in the photo, he was partially generalising his feelings about the terrorists, who were also Muslim, onto the woman walking past. Generalisation can also lead to depersonalisation, where people don’t perceive the members of out-groups as unique individuals, but as prototypical embodiments of a social group (where one person’s actions represent the whole group). The woman photographed was seen to represent all Muslims and through negative lens he had on Islam, he decided she was ignoring the situation and was refusing to help, without knowing the background. Depersonalisation can ultimately cause dehumanisation (stripping the person of their dignity and humanity) if the out-group is deeply hated and is so negatively stereotyped, that respect is denied to members of the group. This can be applied to the event because the fact the woman has