Poll finds huge support for far right 'if they gave up violence' - And 52 per cent of Britons agree that ‘Muslims create problems in the UK’

Huge numbers of Britons would support an anti-immigration English nationalist party if it was not associated with violence and fascist imagery, according to the largest survey into identity and extremism conducted in the UK. [See details below]

A Populus poll found that 48% of the population would consider supporting a new anti-immigration party committed to challenging Islamist extremism ….

Anti-racism campaigners said the findings suggested Britain's mainstream parties were losing touch with public opinion on issues of identity and race.

The poll suggests that the level of backing for a far-right party could equal or even outstrip that in countries such as France, the Netherlands and Austria.

39% of Asian Britons against further immigration

According to the survey, 39% of Asian Britons, 34% of white Britons and 21% of black Britons wanted all immigration into the UK to be stopped permanently, or at least until the economy improved.

And 43% of Asian Britons, 63% of white Britons and 17% of black Britons agreed with the statement that "immigration into Britain has been a bad thing for the country".

Over half of all respondents agree "Muslims create problems in the UK"

Just over half of respondents – 52% – agreed with the proposition that "Muslims create problems in the UK".

The poll also identified a majority keen to be allowed to openly criticise religion, with 60% believing they "should be allowed to say whatever they believe about religion".

By contrast, fewer than half – 42% – said "people should be allowed to say whatever they believe about race".

Source: guardian.co.uk Read more

And another summary.

Half of Britain 'would vote for far-Right parties if they gave up violence'

Almost half the country would back a far-Right party if they gave up violence, an astonishing new poll revealed today.

A total of 48 per cent said that they would support a group that vowed to crack down on immigration and Islamic extremists.

They would also restrict the building of mosques and order the flag of St George or the Union Jack be flown on all public buildings.

In one of the most revealing questions, pollsters Populus asked people if they would back a party that ‘wants to defend the English, create an English parliament, control immigration and challenge Islamic extremism’.

A total of 48 per cent said they would either ‘definitely support’ or ‘consider supporting’ a party with such an agenda, if it shunned violence and fascist imagery.

…. In the 12 months to last September, 238,950 migrants were allowed into Britain, the highest figure since records began.

Sixty per cent of people thought immigration had been ‘a bad thing’ for England, against 40 per cent who said it had been ‘good’.

Thirty-four per cent said immigration should be stopped permanently or until the economy improved. The report also found opposition comes from all races, not just ‘white Britons’.

'And 52 per cent of Britons agree that ‘Muslims create problems in the UK’.

Source: MailOnline Read more

Details of Survey

The Searchlight Educational Trust commissioned the polling organisation Populus to carry out this survey.

With 5,054 respondents and 91 questions it is one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys into attitude, identity and extremism in the UK to date. The findings are in a major report called “Fear and Hope – the New Politics of Identity”. See full project report here.

Muslims prefer democracy but want stoning for adultery and death for apostasy

Pew Global Attitudes Survey 2010

A full copy of this survey of seven Muslim countries can be seen here or downloaded from here.

These results are shocking. Most Muslims favour stoning to death for adultery, whipping or amputation for theft, and the death penalty for apostasy.

They are so shocking you might be inclined to look for excuses; stoning and amputation don’t happen that much, they are more a symbol of how crime is frowned upon. [You could also believe that if the threat of extremely harsh punishment is the only answer to wrong doing then that society has a problem.]

But death for apostasy! For your beliefs, your conscience. Well, that gets right to the heart of the problem with Islam.

And around a half (85% in Pakistan!) want gender segregation in the workplace. Can Muslims think only of nothing but procreation. How can you run a modern economy like that?

You might wonder too, what the results would have been if Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq had been included in the survey.

Islam’s Role in Political Life

Majorities of Muslims in three of the six predominantly Muslim countries surveyed, as well as in Nigeria, say that Islam plays a very or fairly large role in the political life of their countries.

Role of Islam in Politics % who say role is:
Country	Large	Small	DK
Indonesia	89	10	1
Nigeria	88	11	1
Turkey	69	19	12
Lebanon	54	45	1
Egypt	48	49	3
Pakistan	46	36	18
Jordan	34	64	2

In Pakistan, a 46% plurality of Muslims say Islam plays a large role, while 36% say it plays a small role in Pakistani politics. Opinions are about evenly divided in Egypt, where 48% of Muslims say Islam plays a large role in their country’s political life and 49% say it plays only a small role.

Most Welcome Islam’s Influence

Muslims in Nigeria and in nearly all of the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed overwhelmingly welcome Islamic influence over their countries’ politics.

Islam's Influence in Politics % who say it is:
Country	Positive	Negative	NS
Indonesia	91	6	3
Egypt	85	2	13
Nigeria	82	10	8
Jordan	76	14	10
Pakistan	69	6	22
Lebanon	58	32	10
Turkey	38	31	31

Only in Turkey are opinions about the role of Islam in political life more mixed. About four in ten (38%) Turkish Muslims say Islam plays a large role and embrace its influence in their country’s politics or say it is bad that Islam plays only a small role; about three-in-ten (31%) say Islam’s influence is negative.

Views of Gender Segregation

Muslim publics offer mixed views of gender segregation in the workplace. Pakistani Muslims are the most supportive: 85% say they would favor making segregation of men and women in the workplace the law in their country. A narrower majority (54%) of Muslims in Egypt also support making gender segregation the law in their country.

Gender Segregation in the Workplace % who:
Country	Favour	Oppose	NS
Pakistan	85	11	4
Egypt	54	44	2
Jordan	50	44	6
Nigeria	49	48	3
Indonesia	38	59	3
Turkey	13	84	3
Lebanon	11	89	-

In Lebanon, Turkey and Indonesia, majorities of Muslims reject legalized gender segregation in the workplace. More than eight-in-ten in Lebanon (89%) and Turkey (84%) express this opinion, as do 59% of Muslims in Indonesia. In most of the countries where this question was asked, men and women express similar views of gender segregation in the workplace.

Support for Severe Laws

Majorities of Muslims in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Nigeria say they would favor making harsh punishments such as stoning people who commit adultery; whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery; and the death penalty for those who leave the Muslim religion the law in their country.

Views of Harsh Punishments % who favour:
Country	Stoning for Adultery	Whipping & Amputation	Death for Apostasy
Egypt	82	77	84
Pakistan	82	82	76
Jordan	70	58	86
Nigeria	56	65	51
Indonesia	42	36	30
Lebanon	23	13	6
Turkey	16	13	5

For the most part, views of strict punishments do not vary consistently across demographic groups in seven countries where these questions were asked. One notable exception, however, is in Nigeria, where Muslim men express considerably more support than Muslim women for these types of punishments.

The original Pew table uses these headings

Stoning people who commit adultery
Whippings/cutting off of hands for theft and robbery
Death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion

Support for Democracy

In nearly all of the countries surveyed, support for harsh punishments such as stoning people who commit adultery, whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery and the death penalty for those who leave the Muslim religion coexists with support for democratic governance.

Views of Democracy
Country	Preferable	Not Always Preferable	Doesn't Matter for Me	DK
Lebanon	81	12	5	2
Turkey	76	6	5	13
Jordan	69	17	10	4
Nigeria	66	18	16	1
Indonesia	65	12	19	4
Egypt	59	22	16	2
Pakistan	42	15	21	22

With the exception of Pakistan, majorities of Muslims in all of the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed and in Nigeria say that democracy is preferable to any other kind of government.

The original Pew table uses these headings

Democracy is preferable to any other kind of government
In some circumstances, a non-democratic government can be preferable
For someone like me, it doesn’t matter what kind of government we have

Survey Details

Sample design: Multi-stage cluster sample stratified proportional to population size and urban/rural population. Mode: Face-to-face adults 18 plus. Language: Main language of country. Fieldwork dates: April – May, 2010. Sample size: 1,000. Margin of error: ±4.0 percentage points. Representative: Adult population. With the following exceptions:

Indonesia: Sample design representative of roughly 88% of the population

Lebanon: Sample design excludes a small area in Beirut controlled by a militia group and a few villages in the south Lebanon, which border Israel and are inaccessible to outsiders.

Pakistan: Sample design excludes the FATA/FANA areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir for security reasons as well as areas of instability in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [formerly the North-West Frontier Province] and Baluchistan – roughly 16% of the population, with disproportional sampling of the urban population. Sample size: 2,000. Margin of error: ±3.0 percentage points.

The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project

The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project conducts public opinion surveys around the world on a broad array of subjects ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. More than 240,000 interviews in 57 countries have been conducted as part of the project’s work.

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does so by conducting public opinion polling and social science research; by analyzing news coverage; and by holding forums and briefings. It does not take positions on policy issues.

French and Germans consider Islam “a threat”

Islam is considered a ‘threat’ by millions of French and Germans to their national identity.

A poll by France’s Le Monde newspaper also found a majority in both countries believe Muslims have ‘not integrated properly’. Le Monde ran the results under a headline which brands efforts to get different religious communities to live side by side as a ‘failure’.

France, with seven million, and Germany, 4.3 million, have the largest Muslim communities in Europe. There are 2.4million in Britain.

Last year German Chancellor Angela Merkel conceded that her country’s multicultural society had ‘failed’, while French president Nicolas Sarkozy has also complained about the growing influence of radical Islam. [MailOnline] Read more

A copy of the poll can be obtained from IFOP the French market research company that did the interviewing. Click here

A tabular summary of the results prepared by LibertyPhile is given below.

Opinion regarding the presence of a Muslim community in one’s country

Question: Generally speaking, would you say the presence of a Muslim community in France/Germany is ... ?

% who say presence of Muslim community in France/Germany is:
Country	Threat to country's identity	Factor of cultural enrichment	Neither
France	42	22	36
Germany	40	24	26

The original poll result uses the following column headings:

A threat to our country’s identity
A factor of cultural enrichment for our country
Neither one nor the other

Perception of the integration of Muslims

Question: Would you say that today Muslims and people of Muslim origin are well integrated in French/German society?

% who would say Muslims are well integrated in France/Germany
	Yes		No
	Totally	Moderately	Not very	Not at all	Total no
France	4	28	48	20	68
Germany	4	21	55	20	75

Why are Muslims poorly integrated

Question: Among the following reasons, which two do you consider best explain why Muslims and people of Muslim origin are poorly integrated in French/German society?

Which two reasons best explain why Muslims are poorly integrated? % saying
Reasons	France	Germany
Their refusal to integrate in society	61	67
Cultural differences are too great	40	34
Group together in neighbourhoods and schools	37	32
Racism on the part of French/German people	18	15
Economic difficulties and unemployment	20	10
Inadequate actions and budgets by authorities	2	5

Base: Only those believing that Muslims are poorly integrated in society, i.e. 68% of French sample and 75% of German sample

Characteristics associated with Islam

Question: Which three words from the following list correspond most closely to your perception of Islam?

Which three words correspond most closely to your perception of Islam? % saying
Words	France	Germany
Rejection of western values	31	34
Fanaticism	18	24
Submission	17	14
Violence	6	7
Protection of women	3	2
Justice	3	5
Liberty	2	2
Democracy	1	1
Don't know	19	11

Adhesion to the principle of the construction of mosques

Question: Are you for, against, or indifferent to the construction of mosques in France/in Germany when there is a demand from believers?

% for, against, or indifferent, to the construction of mosques
Country	For	Against	Indifferent	No answer
France	20	39	34	7
Germany	18	50	25	7

Survey Details

France: Sample of 809 persons. Germany: Sample of 801 persons. Representative of the respective populations aged 18 and over. Representativeness is based on the quota method (gender, age, profession of head of household) after stratification by region and size of town.

Data collection: Interviews were conducted through online self-completion questionnaire. Fieldwork dates. France: December 7-9, 2010. Germany: December 3-8, 2010

What Europeans Think about Islam – Some Recent Surveys

75% of Czechs oppose building mosques

75.2% of the Czechs side with President Vaclav Klaus and oppose building mosques in the Czech Republic, according to a poll by research agency SANEP. The survey shows this is mostly due to concerns about rising crime and terrorism.

Czechs are the most atheistic in Europe, but 76.2% believe their country should be based on Christian values and culture. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Netherlands: 73% support a burqa ban

73% of the Dutch people support a general ban on burqas. This according to a Maurice de Hond poll for the KRO program 'De Wandeling'. Among Catholic and Protestants, support for a ban is 10 percentage points higher. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Swedes cite integration issues as a 'problem'

"Xenophobia and democracy issues have come into focus with the Sweden Democrats' (SD) entry into Sweden's Riksdag," wrote Camilla Modéer, secretary-general of Public & Science .... in the Dagens Nyheter daily on Tuesday.

"Some commentators argue that SD's success is a result of journalists and politicians concealing facts and problems with immigration. Others argue that a perceived 'taboo' in the immigration debate is little but a cherished myth."

According to the study highlighted in the article, 73 percent of Swedes see integration and immigration as a problem in the country. [The Local] Read more

Majority approve debate following Sarrazin's claims

A majority of Austrians regard Thilo Sarrazin’s controversial ideas a "justified approach" to re-discuss integration issues, a poll has shown.

Viennese researchers Karmasin found 51 per cent of Austrians said the outgoing Deutsche Bundesbank executive board member’s statements were a good starting point to kick off a discussion about Austrian immigration and integration issues. Only 39 per cent said they did not agree, magazine profil reports today (Mon).

German pollsters said recently six in 10 Germans consider the German Social Democrat’s (SPD) remarks – made in his new book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany Abolishes Itself) – a justified bid to start a fresh debate about immigration and integration of Muslims and other ethnic groups. [Austrian Independent] Read more [via Islam in Europe]

Denmark: 30% see Islam as a threat to Denmark

The Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation (CIR), Department of Political Science, Aarhus University in Denmark conducted a survey on the attitude of the Danes to Islamophobia. (h/t Hodja)

The survey is available for download (PDF), as is an analysis by professor Peter Nannestad "The Danes, Islam and Muslims" (PDF)

30% either agreed or fully agreed with the statement: ”Islam as a religion is a threat to Denmark”. 62% disagreed with the statement. Only 17% of the under-30s asked agreed. Btw, 8% (ie, one) of the Muslims interviewed fully agreed. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Denmark: 55% say Islam bad for social cohesion

49.7% of the Danes think that the immigration of the past four decades has been positive for Danish society and 42.4% see immigration as a negative phenomenon, according to an opinion poll conducted by Rambøll/Analyse Danmark for Jyllands-Posten.

While a small majority welcomes immigration, many Danes don't like the presence of Islam in Denmark. 54.9% of the respondents see the presence of Islam as a problem for the cohesion of Danish society. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Germans most critical of Islam

Germans are much more critical of Islam than other European countries. Sociologist Detlef Pollack of the University of Münster conducted a survey "Religion and Politics", and interviewed 1000 people in Germany, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Portugal about their attitudes towards Islam.

The study showed that 40% of West-Germans and 50% of East Germans feel threatened by foreign cultures.

Less than 5% of the Germans say that Islam is tolerant, compared to more than 20% of the Danes, French and Dutch say that Islam is tolerant. Although those countries have violent conflicts with their Muslim minorities, a clear majority had a positive image of Muslims.

In West-Germany, only 34% had a positive opinion of Muslims, and in East Germany, only 26% [Islam in Europe] Read more

Most Germans see Muslims as a 'burden': poll

A majority of Germans believe the country's roughly four million Muslims are an economic burden, a poll showed Thursday, adding further fire to a raging immigration debate in Europe's top economy.

The survey, by the Allensbach Institute for the Financial Times Deutschland, showed that 55 percent of Germans thought Muslims "cost considerably more socially and financially than they produce economically."

Only one fifth of those polled believed the opposite. Anti-Muslim feeling was strongest in economically depressed East Germany, where 74 percent had a negative view. [Expatica] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

Xenophobia takes root in German mainstream

.... Anti-Islam views were particularly strong in the FES poll, which surveyed 2,400 Germans aged between 14 and 90. Just over 58 percent said that “religious practice for Muslims in Germany should be seriously limited,” and that number rose to 75.7 percent for people from former East Germany.

Leipzig-based study authors Oliver Decker and Elmar Brähler called their findings an “alarm signal for politics and society,” saying the right-wing extremist views had multiplied during the financial crisis. People who promote such views could use the situation to “gain political capital,” they warned. [The Local] Read more [via Islam in Europe]

Over half of French Muslims say they will marry only another Muslim

France’s Muslims, regularly accused by the country’s right-wing politicians of not adapting to the culture here, are torn between tradition and modernity when it comes to relationships and marriage, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Done for an online dating service, the poll found huge opposition to both polygamy and arranged marriages.

But a strong majority of respondents said they were opposed to premarital sex and a bare majority said they wouldn’t marry someone of another faith background.

…. “In a country dominated by the principle of liberal lifestyle choices they are largely free of the religious or cultural dictates that legitimize polygamy and arranged marriages.”

But the poll suggests that their value system remains “impregnated” with a moral code which views sex as legitimate only within a marriage and which strongly influences marriage partner choices.

The poll found that 84% opposed the legalization of polygamy in France, while 83% reject the notion that parents should choose spouses for their children.

Roughly three out of four (73%) are against sex outside marriage, while 53% said they were unwilling to marry a non-Muslim. [National Post] Read more [via Islam in Europe]