Image of Muslims improves in Europe: Survey

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Sunday 07 Jun 2015 - 13:00 Makkah mean time-20-8-1436 (Google image) Paris, (IINA) - Despite the surge of Islamophobic attacks across Europe, a new survey revealed that the favorable views of Muslims are on the rise in France and UK, OnIslam reported. “There has been no backlash against Muslims in French public opinion,” said the author of the research, Richard Wike, France 24 reported on Saturday. According to a Pew Research Center survey, positive views of Muslims have steadily increased over the past year. Remaining unchanged after Charlie Hebdo attacks, favorable views of French Muslims have increased by 4 percent points higher than 2014, with 76 percent of French saying they have a positive view of Muslims. Moreover, very favorable view of Muslims has increased from 14 percent last year to 25 percent among the French over the past five months. Based on telephone interviews of adults with a sample size of 1,001 people, the Pew survey found that positive views of Muslims are higher among France's political left than the right. The author of the research believes that the widespread calls for national unity after Paris attacks, besides official statements that aimed to disassociate Islam from terror attacks, have contributed in improving the image of Muslims in the country. Mainstream French media may have also helped in shaping positive view of Muslims by criticizing stereotyping and bias, according to the author. A similar rise in the pro-Muslim views among Britons was shown by the survey. Positive views of Muslims have increased from 64 percent in 2014 to 72 percent in 2015, according to the survey Pew Research Center. Across Europe, bigoted and xenophobic views have actually decreased over the past year, the poll found. On the other hand, Italy and Poland remained the countries with most negative views of Muslims and Jews. It is noteworthy that the situation for French Muslims has been deteriorating recently, especially after Paris attacks killed 17 civilians. Following the attacks, the National Observatory Against Islamophobia said over 100 incidents have been reported to the police since the Charlie Hebdo attacks. The rise in attacks over the last two weeks represents an increase of 110 percent over the whole of January 2014, the organization said. The observatory also noted that more than 222 separate acts of anti-Muslim behavior were recorded in the first month after the January attacks. SM/IINA