Islamophobia is "alive and well" in Australia: researcher

Sixty percent of Australians would be concerned if a relative married a Muslim, a new national survey has found.

The snapshot of Australia's attitudes to Islam, released by Melbourne's Deakin University on Tuesday, also found that concern about Muslims is double that of any other group.

A third of respondents to the study said they would not object to Muslims being more thoroughly searched at airports, and a quarter would support all anti-terror efforts being focused on Muslims.

Comparatively, just 8.1 percent of those polled said they would be concerned if a relative married a Christian.

Matteo Vergani, the lead researcher on the study, said that the results proved Islamophobia was "alive and well" in Australia.

"People who know Muslims and more about Islam as a religion are the ones who don't feel threatened," Vergani told Fairfax Media on Tuesday.

The survey asked respondents five questions about the principle beliefs of Islam to determine their knowledge of the religion.

Respondents were then posed a series of Islamophobic statements with which they were asked to agree or disagree.

The Deakin survey came the week after an Essential poll found that half of all Australians supported a complete ban on Muslim immigration.

Vergani said he believed the data represented a "national snapshot" and was reliable.

"The result is really similar to the Essential poll of last week," he said.

The Essential poll found that the most common reasons for wanting the ban were fears over terrorism and a belief that Muslims do not share Australian values. Endit