By conducting a media frame analysis, the aim of this paper is to know whether and to what extent the Spanish large-circulation quality newspapers ‘Abc,’ ‘El País’ and ‘La Vanguardia’ portray Muslims and Islam as a strange, monolithic and problematic ‘other’. Variations according to ideology and the nature of the events reported are observed. This is an empirical and longitudinal content analysis examining the full coverage (432 texts, once news related to terrorism were excluded) throughout an entire year (2017). Insofar as the media shape public opinion, to analyse media symbolic construction of Muslims and Islam as included/excluded, diverse/monolithic, and friendly/threatening may be helpful in trying to explain perceptions and attitudes toward them. Findings demonstrate (i) that the Spanish media coverage is more homogenising than exclusive, although it presents both Islamophobic traits, and (ii) that it is more balanced in its framing of Muslims and Islam as a problem, and in fact it tends to portrays the Islamic as non-problematic. The democratic principle of pluralism of information is translated, in any case, into a plurality of frames. It is tentatively concluded that the media have the potential to foster tolerance by providing balanced coverage. The paper is expected to further contribute to comparative investigations.