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]
