As British police report a surge in hate crimes since the Brexit vote, new research into Islamophobia, especially in the country, has identified the most common ways Muslims are depicted on Facebook, described as the “five walls of Islamophobic hate”. The view of Muslims as terrorists was the third most common (58 instances), and a war with Muslims (53 instances) and “Muslims as rapists” (45 instances) were the next most often repeated comments. Among these categories, the most frequent abuse depicted Muslim women as security threats due to their clothing (76 instances), followed by the belief that Muslims should be deported (62 instances). The networking site was trawled for references to Muslims and Woolwich, Muslims and Islam, Muslims and Extremism, and Muslims and Terrorism, with the results covering dozens of pages including those of right-wing groups. Awan found there were five recurring ways in which Muslims were portrayed during abuse – which he defines as “the five walls of Islamophobic hate: Muslims are terrorists; Muslims are rapists; Muslim women are a security threat; a war exists between Muslims and ‘us’; Muslims should be deported”.

Source: Hindustan Times July 25, 2016 16:18 UTC