This is quite a new word in the English language and means fear of or dislike of Muslims and of their religion - Islam. It is a kind of prejudice. It can also become a kind of discrimination if people act on their prejudice, and actually treat Muslims worse as well as think about them in a worse way.

Most Muslims in Britain have roots in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and some African countries, with smaller numbers who have connections to Middle Eastern countries and Malaysia. This means they are very likely to be dark skinned, so ideas and actions against them can be mixed up and blurred with racism. People who are hostile towards Muslims may not be sure whether it is their religion, their colour or other things (like language) that they really dislike. Muslims who are treated badly cannot always be sure either.

At the moment discriminating against someone because they are a Muslim is not against the law.

People who dislike Muslims and Islam tend to give several reasons for this.

One reason is the idea that Islam is very strict and old-fashioned, so Muslims have very hard, unbending ideas. The word usually used for this is fundamentalist. Actually, believers in any religion can be fundamentalist. It really means keeping very strictly to what their holy book says and not changing any rules to fit in with modern ways. Catholic Christians who say contraception is wrong could be called fundamentalists. Some Christians of various kinds believe that women cannot be priests, or that the world was created in seven days. They believe this because the Bible says so - these too could be called fundamentalists. It is not necessarily an insult, though it often seems that way.

Another reason for Islamophobia is the idea that many Muslims are terrorists. Of course this idea has grown since the attacks in the USA on September 11 2001. These were carried out by Muslims claiming to be striking a blow against a wicked country for the sake of all Muslims. The trouble is, not all Muslims agreed with them, and many Muslim countries have joined in to try to find and punish the organisation behind the attacks.

This idea is linked to the belief that Islam allows Muslims to carry out terrorism or to kill people if they believe they are fighting a 'holy war' (Jihad in Arabic). Islam does not allow believers to do this. Many people fighting wars, whatever their religion, say they have God on their side.

Some people seem to fear that Britain is being taken over by Muslims. The page showing numbers of minority people in Britain show that British people with roots and backgrounds in Islamic countries are a long way from taking over the country. In the last election there were 15 MPs who had 10% or more of their local population who were Muslims (there are over 600 MPs altogether).

Quite a lot of ideas about Muslims and Islam come from the newspapers and TV, who tend to put over quite a limited view. This table shows this, with a different view in each case: