A new international study that measured levels of Islamophobia in 23 Western countries found that Canadians are least likely to have bigoted attitudes towards Muslims.
At least 32,000 people from 19 European states, plus Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, were asked this question: "Would you like to have a person from this group (Muslims) as your neighbor?"
Of the nearly 2,000 people polled in Canada, only 6.5% said they wouldn’t like to live beside Muslims.
The number of people who answered “No” to the question was highest in Greece (20.9%), followed by Belgium (19.8%), Norway (19.3%) and Finland (18.9%).
Results in the United Kingdom and the United States were 14.1% respectively, and the average percentage of negative responses across all western countries was 14.5%.
The study, titled “Love Thy Neighbor: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries?”, is due to be published in the journal Kyklos, International Review for Social Sciences.
Despite the West's "reputation for liberalism, there can be little doubt that, in the past decade or so in western countries, there is an increasing awareness of, and a hardening of attitudes towards, people who are 'different,'" said the study's co-authors, economists Vani Borooah of the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and John Mangan of the University of Queensland in Australia.
"Arguments about the Muslim veil in Britain, and the headscarf in France, are part of a wider debate ... about the erosion of national identity through the steady drip of special demands predicated on tolerance for cultural diversity," they added.
Salma Siddiqui, an official with the Toronto-based Muslim Canadian Congress, told CanWest News Service on Wednesday that the survey findings indicate that Canada is a “very tolerant nation.”
"We are lucky to be living in a country that recognizes all human rights," she said.
Recent estimates suggest that the number of Muslims in Canada is growing rapidly and that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the country.
A survey carried out in May 2003 showed that Islam is the first religion among non-Christian faiths in the Quebec region. It linked the growth in the number of Muslims to the increasing migration wave to Canada from south Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
--AJP and Agencies
At least 32,000 people from 19 European states, plus Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, were asked this question: "Would you like to have a person from this group (Muslims) as your neighbor?"
Of the nearly 2,000 people polled in Canada, only 6.5% said they wouldn’t like to live beside Muslims.
The number of people who answered “No” to the question was highest in Greece (20.9%), followed by Belgium (19.8%), Norway (19.3%) and Finland (18.9%).
Results in the United Kingdom and the United States were 14.1% respectively, and the average percentage of negative responses across all western countries was 14.5%.
The study, titled “Love Thy Neighbor: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries?”, is due to be published in the journal Kyklos, International Review for Social Sciences.
Despite the West's "reputation for liberalism, there can be little doubt that, in the past decade or so in western countries, there is an increasing awareness of, and a hardening of attitudes towards, people who are 'different,'" said the study's co-authors, economists Vani Borooah of the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and John Mangan of the University of Queensland in Australia.
"Arguments about the Muslim veil in Britain, and the headscarf in France, are part of a wider debate ... about the erosion of national identity through the steady drip of special demands predicated on tolerance for cultural diversity," they added.
Salma Siddiqui, an official with the Toronto-based Muslim Canadian Congress, told CanWest News Service on Wednesday that the survey findings indicate that Canada is a “very tolerant nation.”
"We are lucky to be living in a country that recognizes all human rights," she said.
Recent estimates suggest that the number of Muslims in Canada is growing rapidly and that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the country.
A survey carried out in May 2003 showed that Islam is the first religion among non-Christian faiths in the Quebec region. It linked the growth in the number of Muslims to the increasing migration wave to Canada from south Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
--AJP and Agencies