YouGovwas recently commissioned by the Muslim Council of Elders to conduct a multi-country study on attitudes to religion in the West and Middle East/North Africa region…The research included online surveys in France, Germany, Britain, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Fieldwork was conducted between 31st December 2018 and 31st January 2019.

As findings show, substantial portions of Western respondents in the survey perceived a clash between Islam and the values of society in their country.

This included nearly half of respondents in France (46%) and Germany (47%), and a plurality in the United States (36%) and Britain (38%) who chose this statement. Notably smaller portions chose the alternative statement – that Islam is generally compatible with the values of society in their country – including 22% in France, 20% in Germany, 17% in the United States and 24% in Britain.

In a separate survey experiment for the purpose of comparison, only 14% of US respondents perceived such a clash with Buddhism, with similar or matching results for Sikhism (15%) and Hinduism (14%). Likewise, only 6% of British respondents perceived a values clash with Buddhism, while just 8% said the same for both Sikhism and Hinduism.

In other results, general impressions of Islam were comparatively less favorable than that of other world religions among significant numbers of Western respondents.

For instance, all four Western samples had a discernibly higher number of respondents who felt unfavorable to Islam, compared with other religions.

Source: YouGov