Around 50 p.c of Germans are cautious of Islam, a brand new study by a native NGO discovered. The pollsters blame the media for this state of affairs, including that tolerance of different main religions within the nation is way larger.
In a study on spiritual range carried out by the German Bertelsmann Foundation, one-third of the respondents see Islam as “enriching” German society. At the identical time, half of contributors stated they view it as a “threat.”
The proportion of these skeptical about Islam is even larger within the japanese areas of the nation – round 57 p.c – regardless that fewer Muslims reside there.
Meanwhile, Germans appear to have fewer reservations about different main religions. The study discovered that the “majority” of respondents are fantastic with Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
However, the “widespread skepticism about Islam” shouldn’t be “necessary equated to Islamophobia,” Yasemin el-Menouar, a faith knowledgeable with the Bertelsmann Foundation, stated.
“Apparently, many individuals presently see Islam as much less of a faith however extra of a political ideology and don’t affiliate it with spiritual tolerance,” el-Menouar stated, arguing that this angle has been fashioned by information experiences and political debates lately.
An imam at a Berlin mosque and Islamic theologist, Said Ahmed Arif, agrees that not everybody who’s fearful of Islam is an Islamophobe. Negative sentiments are fueled by the “bad image” Muslims have within the media as a result of of radicals who commit crimes, he informed RT.
I’m optimistic that issues will work out if either side do their half to actively have interaction in dialogue and never in selling worry and hysteria.
The study was half of the Bertelsmann Foundation’s ‘religion monitor’ analysis first carried out in 2017 and was based mostly on a survey of 1,000 folks throughout Germany.
According to German media, the whole quantity of Muslims residing within the nation of 80 million folks quantities to about 5 million. Germany has witnessed a surge in anti-Islam and anti-migrant sentiment following the 2015 refugee disaster, when the nation took in greater than 1,000,000 refugees and asylum seekers, largely from the Middle East and Africa.