Miss England and the Stereotyping of Muslims

England's first muslim Miss World is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying:

Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway.

Yes, well how else would you expect genuine followers of a 'religion of peace' to respond to the increasingly widespread suspicion that muslims tend to be terrorist supporters and sympathisers? (Based on such flimsy evidence as a British government report which states that there are 16,000 British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity, and recent polls showing that almost a third of British muslims support or sympathize with the London tube bombings).

Surely any one of us, if we belonged to a religion so peaceful that its name literally meant 'peace', but which had been negatively portrayed as violent, would say to himself, well they think we're like that anyway so I may as well strap on a backpack and go slaughter dozens of innocent commuters!

Either that or the negative stereotype was largely true to begin with. (You decide.)

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Stephen Pollard is reminded of a previous case of unfair stereotyping, as reported in The Onion:

"HEBRON, WEST BANK—In an emotionally charged press conference Monday, crazed Palestinian gunman Faisal al Hamad expressed frustration over the stereotyping of his people.

Faisal al Hamad, seen here shrieking anti-U.S. slogans, says that "not every crazed Palestinian gunman is exactly alike."

"As a crazed Palestinian gunman, I feel hurt by the negative portrayal of my people in the media," said al Hamad, 31, a Hebron-area terrorist maniac. "None of us should have to live with stereotyping and ignorance."

He then began screaming and firing into a busload of Israeli schoolchildren.

"It hurts that in this supposedly enlightened day and age, people still make assumptions about other people," al Hamad said. "We should not rely on simple generalizations. Each crazed Palestinian gunman is an individual."