Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The British Wolfe Institute has published the results of a study on the attitude of British citizens towards ethnic, national and religious diversity. The survey involved 11,700 people throughout England and Wales.

The Wolfe Institute is an academic institution in Cambridge, England that conducts research on the relationship between Jews, Christians and Muslims. The institute consists of the Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations (CJCR), the Center for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR) and the Center for Politics and Public Education (CPPE).

The researchers focused on the issue of marriage as a way to measure tolerance and prejudice. They found that the general public was generally positive about mixed marriages based on ethnicity and nationality.

At the same time, the experts came to the following conclusions.

First, religious intolerance is a greater cause of prejudice than racial intolerance. Most Muslims did not like the idea that a close relative would marry a Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, Sikh, or non-religious person. Nearly four out of 10 Muslims felt uncomfortable when their close relatives married a Christian.

Religious prejudice was stronger among people over 75, with no or low education, non-Asian ethnic minorities and Baptists.

Secondly, most people are tolerant towards representatives of other nationalities. Nearly three-quarters of non-black or Asian respondents said they feel comfortable when a close relative marries a black or Asian person. But only 43% of them believe that marrying a Muslim is the right decision.

Among Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists and non-religious people, most felt uncomfortable at the thought of a close relative marrying a Muslim woman. The word "Muslim" has generated more negative emotions than the word "Pakistani", although the vast majority of British Pakistanis are Muslims.

In general, the main conclusion of the study is that the majority are tolerant of people of different ethnic or national origin, but the attitude of many of them changes in a negative direction due to religious prejudices.