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The most sobering finding is that 46% of Turks say they hope that one day Germany will have more Muslims than Christians.

by Soeren Kern
December 10, 2012 at 5:00 am

Germans are overwhelmingly mistrustful of Islam and Muslim immigration, according to a new research survey, which concludes that the image of Islam in Germany is "devastating."

The findings -- which corroborate the conclusions of other recent studies -- show a growing divide between ordinary Germans, who are concerned about the consequences of mass immigration from Muslim countries, and Germany's political elites, who are determined to build a "multicultural" society at any cost.

The 28-page study, "Fear of the East in the West" [Die Furcht vor dem Morgenland im Abendland], was produced by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research, and was published by the center-right German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on November 21.

Those who participated in the survey were asked to choose which of 21 statements about Islam most closely reflect their own views.

The research shows that more than half of the German population believes that Islam is prone to violence (64%); has a tendency toward revenge and retaliation (60%); is obsessed with proselytizing others (56%); and strives for political influence (56%).

More than 80% of Germans believe that Islam deprives women of their rights, and 70% say Islam is associated with religious fanaticism and radicalism.

By contrast, only 13% of Germans associate Islam with love for neighbors, 12% with charity and 7% with openness and tolerance.

The high level of mistrust of Islam in Germany is also reflected in other questions. For example, 44% of those surveyed answered "yes" to the question, "Do you think there will be serious conflict between the Western Christian culture and the Arab Muslim culture in the future?" In addition, one quarter of respondents say they believe that such conflict already exists at the current time.

Another question concerns the term "Clash of Civilizations," a concept which states that cultural and religious identity will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.

The survey shows that 43% of Germans say they believe such a clash is taking place. According to the authors of the report, this represents a majority because only 34% of Germans explicitly disagree with the theory.

In addition, only 36% of Germans believe that Christianity and Islam can live together peacefully side-by-side. Moreover, 53% think that there will always be serious conflicts between these two religions.

As for relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Germany, respondents are highly pessimistic. In response to the question, "Do you think tensions in relations with Muslims will grow in Germany in the near future and should we be worried about it," nearly half of all Germans (48%) answered "yes" to the question; only 29% of Germans say they see no threat.

The majority of Germans are also firmly opposed to appeasing Muslims and Islam. Only 27% of Germans say there should be a ban on speech that could insult or provoke Muslims. A clear majority of Germans (52%) are explicitly opposed to such restrictions on free speech.

By contrast, 39% of Germans say they believe there should be a ban on the construction of minarets, similar to the ban in Switzerland.

Nearly half of Germans (47%) agree with the statement, "Although it is a personal choice, I do not like to see a woman wearing a scarf on her head."

The survey shows that Germans are overwhelmingly opposed to recent attempts by politicians to describe Islam as an integral part of German culture.

Only 22% of Germans say they agree with the statement, "Islam and Christianity are equally German," while two-thirds (64%) say they completely disagree.

Even when this question is reformulated (as German President Joachim Gauck has recently done) to read, "The Muslims who live here are part of Germany," only 29% of Germans say they agree. A relative majority, 47% of Germans, explicitly reject the idea that Muslims are part of Germany.

Although German elites have worked hard to portray all critics of Islam as belonging to the "far right," this survey and many others provide ample empirical evidence that voters from across the political spectrum are concerned about the spread of Islam in Germany.

An opinion survey, for example, called "Perception and Acceptance of Religious Diversity," conducted by the University of Münster in partnership with the TNS Emnid political polling firm, shows that only 34% of the West Germans and 26% of the East Germans have a positive view of Muslims. Fewer than 5% of the Germans think Islam is a tolerant religion, and only 30% say they approve of the building of mosques. The number of Germans who approve of the building of minarets or the introduction of Muslim holidays is even lower.

Fewer than 10% of the West Germans and 5% of the East Germans say that Islam is a peaceful religion. More than 40% of Germans believe that the practice of Islam should be restricted.

Only 20% of Germans believe that Islam is suitable for the Western world. Significantly, more than 80% of Germans agree with the statement, "Muslims must adapt to our culture." (More than one million immigrants living permanently in Germany cannot speak German.)

Another survey, "Global Views on Immigration," conducted by the London-based Ipsos global research firm, found that more than half the Germans believe "there are too many immigrants" in their country.

In response to the polling question, "Would you say that immigration has generally had a positive or negative impact," 54% of Germans said the impact has been negative. Nearly 60% of Germans agree with the survey statement "Immigration has placed too much pressure on public services."

Another report, "Muslim-Western Tensions Persist," published by the Washington, DC-based Pew Research Center, shows that 61% of Germans believe their relations with Muslims are bad. The poll also says that 72% of Germans believe Muslims in their countries do not want to integrate; and that 79% of Germans believe Islam is "the most violent" religion. More than two-thirds of Germans are worried about Islamic extremists in their country.

A separate poll conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project states that 71% of Germans believe Islamic veils should be banned in public, including in schools, hospitals and government offices.

Another survey, published by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a think-tank linked to the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), found that 55% of Germans believe that Arabs are "unpleasant," and over 33% believe the country is being "overrun" by immigrants. The study also noted that "far-right attitudes" are not isolated at the extremes of German society, but to a large degree are "at the center of it."

Although these surveys clearly and consistently show that most Germans are worried about the impact that unrestricted Muslim immigration is having on their daily lives, German politicians continue to promote the rise of Islam in Germany.

Hamburg, for instance, the second-largest city in Germany, concluded on November 13 a "historic treaty" with its Muslim communities that grants Muslims broad new rights and privileges but does little to encourage their integration into German society.

The agreement, signed by Hamburg's Socialist Mayor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of four Muslim umbrella groups, has been praised by the proponents of multiculturalism for putting the northern port city's estimated 200,000 Muslims on an equal footing with Christian residents.

On November 30, the northern German city of Bremen followed Hamburg's lead by concluding its own treaty [Staatsvertrag] with the local Muslim community. The Socialist mayor of Bremen, Jens Böhrnsen, said the treaty reflects "mutual recognition and respect of mutual values."

Critics, however, say the agreements, the first of their kind in Germany, will boost the growing influence of Islam in the country by encouraging the perpetuation of a Muslim parallel society.

These fears have been substantiated by a recent report which found that nearly half of all Turks living in Germany say they hope there will be more Muslims than Christians in Germany in the future. (Germany has Western Europe's second-biggest Muslim population after France, with Turks comprising the single biggest minority.)

The 103-page study, "German-Turkish Life and Values" (abridged version in German here), was jointly produced by the Berlin-based INFO polling institute and the Antalya, Turkey-based Liljeberg research firm, and was released to the general public in August 2012.

The study found that Islam is becoming an increasingly important component of the value structure of Turks in Germany, especially among the younger generation of Turkish-Germans, who hold religious views that are more radical than those held by their parents.

Almost all Turks surveyed (95%) said it is absolutely necessary for them to preserve their Turkish identity, and 62% said they would rather be around Turks than around Germans. Only 39% of Turks said that Germans are trustworthy.

At the same time, 87% of those surveyed said they believe that German society should make a greater effort to be considerate of the customs and traditions of Turkish immigrants.

Of those Turks surveyed, 72% believe that Islam is the only true religion; 18% say Jews are inferior people and 10% say Christians are inferior. Most Turks (55%) believe that Germany should build more mosques.

Arguably the most sobering finding of the study is that 46% of Turks say they hope that Germany will one day have more Muslims than Christians.

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
3w.gatestoneinstitute.org/3487/germany-fear-east-west

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A bit of a clash between reality and an alternate universe.

And, a related article:

Zitat

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“Minarets Are Our Bayonets”: The Swiss Vote To Ban Them

by Soeren Kern
December 3, 2009 at 7:30 am

Swiss voters on November 29 overwhelmingly approved a referendum to ban the construction of minarets, the tower-like structures on mosques that are often used to call Muslims to prayer. The surprise outcome of the referendum, which passed with a clear majority of 57.5 percent of the voters, represents a turning point in the debate about Islam, not only in Switzerland, but across Europe more generally.

The initiative was sponsored by the conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which argues that a minaret is a symbol of Islamic intolerance. The SVP, which also happens to be the biggest political party in Switzerland, says the minaret is really an emblem of war. It describes the minaret as a “symbol of a religious-political claim to power and dominance which threatens – in the name of alleged freedom of religion – the constitutional rights of others.”

The SVP backs its claim by citing a famous remark by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who once implied that the construction of mosques and minarets is part of a strategy for the Islamization of Europe. The pro-Islamist Erdogan said: “The minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks and the faithful our army.”

The current controversy dates back to 2005, when the Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten, a small town of some 4,500 people in northern Switzerland, applied for a permit to erect a 6-meter (20 feet) high minaret on the roof of its Islamic community center. The project to build the minaret, which was opposed by the majority of local residents, was roundly rejected by the town’s building and planning commission. But the Turkish cultural association appealed the decision, claiming that the local building authorities were motivated by religious bias. The case eventually made its way to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, which in 2007 ruled that the project could proceed. The minaret was finally erected in July 2009.

Up until recently, Muslims living in Switzerland had mostly been keeping a low profile, preferring to practice their religion discretely in nondescript mosques. But over the past several years the number of mosques has mushroomed; there now are some 200 mosques and up to 1,000 prayer rooms dotted across the country. And although only four of those have minarets (plans to build a half-dozen more minarets will now be scrapped), observers say the minarets symbolize the growing self-confidence of Switzerland’s Muslim community.

Indeed, the Muslim population in Switzerland has more than quintupled since 1980, and now numbers about 400,000, or roughly 5 percent of the population. Most Muslims living in Switzerland are of Turkish or Balkan origin, with a smaller minority from the Arab world. Many of them are second and third generation immigrants who are now firmly establishing themselves in Switzerland.

The new Muslim demographic reality is raising tensions across large parts of Swiss society, especially as conservative Muslims become more assertive in their demands for greater recognition of their faith.

In one case, for example, Muslim parents recently won a lawsuit demanding that they be allowed to dress their children in full-body bathing suits dubbed ‘burkinis’ during co-ed swimming lessons. In another case, a group of Swiss supermarkets created a stir by banning Muslim employees from wearing headscarves. And in August 2009, the Swiss basketball association told a Muslim player she could not wear a headscarf during league games.

Similar controversies over the role of Islam in European society and how to reconcile Western values with a growing immigrant population are playing themselves out with increasing frequency in towns and cities across the continent.

But the disputes over mosque- and minaret-building, which are currently raging in Austria, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, are far more polemical.

Critics fear that mosques, which are becoming an increasingly prominent feature of the European landscape, are facilitating the establishment of a completely parallel Muslim society, one that is especially welcoming to Islamic fundamentalists. Even some voices on the political left, which has viewed the construction of mosques as symbols of Europe’s post-Christian sophistication and open-mindedness, are beginning to voice concerns that their proliferation is a sign of failing integration.

But left-wing elites in Switzerland and elsewhere accuse groups like the SVP of going too far. As part of its campaign, for example, the SVP published a controversial poster showing the Swiss flag with a woman veiled in black and surrounded by minarets that resemble missiles. Some Swiss cities refused to permit distribution of the posters on the grounds that they incited racism and hatred of Muslims, while others allowed them on freedom-of-speech grounds.

Fearful of a radicalization of Muslims at home and reprisals against Swiss interests abroad, the Swiss government had come out strongly against the minaret referendum. Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a former member of SVP, said the ban would violate the Swiss constitution, which guarantees the freedom of belief and worship for all citizens without exception. And Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said a ‘yes’ vote “could make Switzerland a target for Islamic terrorism.”

Swiss businesses, many with large interests in Muslim countries, also came out against the referendum. They are now hoping to avoid a Muslim boycott similar to the one that hit Denmark in 2005 following a controversy over newspaper cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.

As a result, the Swiss political establishment can be expected to try to find a way to overturn the referendum, possibly by taking a page from the EU playbook, and forcing another referendum until Swiss voters produce the “correct” answer.

In any case, critics say the decision to ban minarets will have little practical effect in the sense that it does not prohibit the construction of new mosques. Nor does it require that existing minarets be torn down. Moreover, the new measure does nothing to improve the integration of Muslims into Swiss society, which lies at the heart of the problem.

But supporters say that is not the point. They say the SVP’s main achievement has really been to draw the public’s attention to the limits of European multiculturalism, especially amid a growing perception that Islam poses a threat to traditional Swiss identity. Indeed, Swiss voters across the political spectrum seem to agree that Muslim immigrants need to be much better assimilated and socially integrated.

In the final analysis, however, the anti-minaret referendum may end up having its greatest impact outside of Switzerland, as conservatives in other European countries will now be emboldened to more forcefully question previously sacrosanct policies on Muslim immigration. If this happens, the Swiss vote will turn out to be the first salvo in a long overdue debate about the role of Islam in Europe.

Soeren Kern is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group

3w.gatestoneinstitute.org/946/minarets-are-our-bayonets-the-swiss-vote-to-ban-them

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