Den renommerte tyske stiftelsen Friedrich Ebert Stiftung står bak den ferske holdningsundersøkelsen i åtte europeiske land, henholdsvis Tyskland, Storbritannia, Frankrike, Italia, Nederland, Polen, Portugal og Ungarn. Stiftelsen ville undersøke ”fordommer” blant europeere knyttet til islam og muslimer. Når rundt 80 prosent britiske borgere, franskmenn, italienere og nederlendere mener at muslimers holdninger til kvinner er i konflikt md europeiske verdier, er vel dette et resultat av faktiske forhold borgerne selv observerer, og ikke fordommer basert på mangel på kunnskap. Også kravmentaliteten reageres det på, en reaksjon som heller ikke burde overraske all den tid muslimer som gruppe utpeker seg markant hva gjelder religiøst betingede særkrav (selvvalgt utenforskap), som halaslakt, kjønnssegregering, press om innføring av sharialover knyttet til familieretten (formelt innført i Storbritannia), med mer.
Det hadde således vært uhyre interessant med en tilsvarende undersøkelse knyttet til hinduer, sikher, og buddhister. Min hypotese er at europeeres holdninger til disse religiøse gruppene generelt er positive.
Den tyske undersøkelsen burde være en oppvekker for muslimske talspersoner: hvordan bedre imaget?
In most of the countries a majority believe Islam to be a religion of intolerance, with agreement just below 50 percent only in Great Britain and the Netherlands. In almost all the countries more than half of respondents said that Muslims make too many demands; Portugal was the only exception with about one third. The statement that there are too many Muslims in the country is affirmed by just over one quarter in Portugal and by about one third in France. In Germany, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands more than 40 percent of respondents complain that there are too many Muslims in their country, in Hungary about 60 percent.Interviewees were also asked to respond to four further statements covering perceived cultural differences and supposed affinity of Muslims toward terrorism (Table 7, items 22 to 25). Despite correlating closely with anti-Muslim attitudes these items represent separate constructs and were therefore excluded from the scale measure.The figures for those who say that Muslim culture is compatible with their own range from 17 percent in Poland and 19 percent in Germany to about half the population in Portugal and France. A majority of more than 70 percent of European respondents find that Muslim attitudes towards women are incompatible with their own values. Overall in the surveyed countries about one third think that Muslims treat Islamist terrorists as heroes, although somewhat fewer believe that terrorism finds moral support in the Muslim community (ranging from under 20 percent in Germany and the Netherlands to nearly 30 percent in Hungary).The scale created from the first three statements clearly illustrates the extent of anti-Muslim attitudes in the studied countries (Figure 5). It is conspicuous that Europeans are largely united in their rejection of Muslims and Islam. The significantly most widespread anti-Muslim attitudes are found in Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland, closely followed by France, Great Britain and the Netherlands. The extent of anti-Muslim attitudes is least in Portugal. In absolute terms, however, the eight countries differ little in their levels of prejudice towards Muslims.
