The purpose of this study was to investigate how Islam and Muslims are portrayed a) in results from studies on Swedish teaching materials, and b) in articles in Swedish media newspapers. The study was conducted through two separate studies. In the first study, five previous research reports on how Islam and Muslims are portrayed in Swedish teaching materials were analysed in order to discern the main results regarding the portrayal of Islam and Muslims. In the second study, newspaper articles from 11 Swedish newspapers were analysed in order to discern which central themes emerge in the description of Muslims and Islam in said newspaper articles, as well as which properties and features are attributed to Muslims and Islam in the articles studied. In both studies, the data was analysed inductively through a qualitative content analysis. The theory used was Edward W. Said´s theory on Orientalism. The result indicates that in Swedish teaching materials, Muslims commonly are portrayed as ”The Other”, and that what is Christian is oftentimes used as a referential point. As regards the research of the newspaper articles, the result indicates that the portrayal of Islam and Muslims is relatively one-sided, wherein Islam and Muslims are associated with religious extremism and terrorism abroad. The study suggests that there are orientalistic tendencies in the investigated material, although there is also a small tendency to portray Swedish Islam and Muslims in a different, more personal manner. This serves to highlight the importance of teaching source criticism in school as well as the fact that teaching materials may require the complementation of additional educational aids and materials.

Uppsatsens syfte var att genom enkätundersökning kombinerat med litteraturstudium kontrollera om elevers uppfattning om islam även bidrog till deras inställning om läromedel, religionsundervisning och samhällsbild. Undersökningen försökte också se de medvetna och omedvetna faktorerna som kunde ligga till grund för elevernas tyckande. Undersökningen gjordes på gymnasieelever från tre olika program där samtliga läste religionskunskap kurs 1 samt avslutat momentet islam.