AlonzoMourning23
02-09-2007, 03:48 AM
Canadians are least likely among citizens of 23 western countries to have bigoted attitudes toward Muslims, according to a new international study that measured the level of "Islamophobia" in each nation.
More than 32,000 respondents from 19 European countries, plus Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, were asked the question: "Would you like to have a person from this group as your neighbour?"
Of the nearly 2,000 people surveyed in Canada - which has recently drawn international attention for the CBC's airing of the prejudice-piercing comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie - only 6.5 per cent said they would not like to live beside a Muslim. Respondents in Greece (20.9 per cent), Belgium (19.8), Norway (19.3) and Finland (18.9) were most likely to answer "No" to the question.
Results in Britain and the U.S. were 14.1 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively, and the average percentage of negative responses across all western countries was 14.5 per cent.
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,'" argue 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," the authors state in the paper titled Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries? to be published in the journal Kyklos, International Review for Social Sciences.
Salma Siddiqui, an official with the Toronto-based Muslim Canadian Congress, told CanWest News Service on Wednesday that the survey results reflect the fact that "Canada is a very tolerant nation.
"We are lucky to be living in a country that recognizes all human rights," she said.
The Quebec town of Herouxville has made news around the world recently after adopting a controversial code of conduct that welcomes newcomers to the municipality of 1,300, but explicitly warns that its residents will not tolerate alien cultural practices such as stoning or burning women or forcing them to wear a veil.
Some Muslim groups, arguing that the town's expression of community "norms" is specifically and unnecessarily targeting certain Muslims, have threatened to lodge a formal complaint with Quebec's human rights commission.
Siddiqui said the MCC, which has campaigned against the use by Muslim women of the full face-covering veil known as a niqab, does not oppose the Herouxville declaration.
"When someone says 'I want to see your face,' I don't think that's going out of line," she said.
The Love Thy Neighbour study also gauged the level of intolerance in each country for four other groups: immigrants in general, people of another race, Jews and homosexuals.
Canadians ranked among the most tolerant nations in each of those categories, as well. Fewer than five per cent of respondents from Canada said they wouldn't want to have a neighbour who is Jewish, an immigrant or of a different race.
Homosexuals were more likely than any other group - in Canada and nearly every other country - to be shunned by a potential neighbour. Just over 17 per cent of Canadians said they would not want a gay person living next door; the overall percentage for western nations was 19.6, with Italy (28.7) and Sweden (six per cent) at the opposite ends of the range.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=58003c86-63aa-4aa8-81b8-cdf4e4f9468a&k=48735
More than 32,000 respondents from 19 European countries, plus Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, were asked the question: "Would you like to have a person from this group as your neighbour?"
Of the nearly 2,000 people surveyed in Canada - which has recently drawn international attention for the CBC's airing of the prejudice-piercing comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie - only 6.5 per cent said they would not like to live beside a Muslim. Respondents in Greece (20.9 per cent), Belgium (19.8), Norway (19.3) and Finland (18.9) were most likely to answer "No" to the question.
Results in Britain and the U.S. were 14.1 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively, and the average percentage of negative responses across all western countries was 14.5 per cent.
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,'" argue 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," the authors state in the paper titled Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries? to be published in the journal Kyklos, International Review for Social Sciences.
Salma Siddiqui, an official with the Toronto-based Muslim Canadian Congress, told CanWest News Service on Wednesday that the survey results reflect the fact that "Canada is a very tolerant nation.
"We are lucky to be living in a country that recognizes all human rights," she said.
The Quebec town of Herouxville has made news around the world recently after adopting a controversial code of conduct that welcomes newcomers to the municipality of 1,300, but explicitly warns that its residents will not tolerate alien cultural practices such as stoning or burning women or forcing them to wear a veil.
Some Muslim groups, arguing that the town's expression of community "norms" is specifically and unnecessarily targeting certain Muslims, have threatened to lodge a formal complaint with Quebec's human rights commission.
Siddiqui said the MCC, which has campaigned against the use by Muslim women of the full face-covering veil known as a niqab, does not oppose the Herouxville declaration.
"When someone says 'I want to see your face,' I don't think that's going out of line," she said.
The Love Thy Neighbour study also gauged the level of intolerance in each country for four other groups: immigrants in general, people of another race, Jews and homosexuals.
Canadians ranked among the most tolerant nations in each of those categories, as well. Fewer than five per cent of respondents from Canada said they wouldn't want to have a neighbour who is Jewish, an immigrant or of a different race.
Homosexuals were more likely than any other group - in Canada and nearly every other country - to be shunned by a potential neighbour. Just over 17 per cent of Canadians said they would not want a gay person living next door; the overall percentage for western nations was 19.6, with Italy (28.7) and Sweden (six per cent) at the opposite ends of the range.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=58003c86-63aa-4aa8-81b8-cdf4e4f9468a&k=48735