The most talked-about subject in this study was the media. Some of it was unsolicited, but most was generated from the question ‘What do you think of the American media?’ The question evoked intense discussion and a lot of emotion. Many respondents said that the media in general portrayed Muslims negatively, while some mentioned a particular media outlet and provided anecdotes. In Chapter 3 I pointed out that most of the respondents claimed to have dual or multiple identities, but when they spoke about issues that were ‘near and dear’ to them, their ethnic or religious identities came to the fore. As I discussed in Chapter 1, emotion and identity are interrelated. Sometimes people create their ingroups by choice – they desire to stay with their own cultural group – and sometimes external factors, such as the media and mainstream politics, lead to the creation of ingroups. The creation of strong ingroups may lead to less interaction with the wider society, which slows progress towards social cohesion between the two groups.

Between 14 and 22 July 2011, the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC conducted telephone interviews with 1,033 Muslims (both male and female, aged eighteen and over). Among several questions (discussed in other chapters) they asked: ‘Do you think that coverage of Islam and Muslims by American news organisations is generally fair or unfair?’ About 55 per cent of respondents thought that the media coverage of Islam and Muslims by US news organisations was generally unfair.