Steepest in Europe..!
Yle calls Christians even more ‘radical’ on the matter with 67% believing Islam incompatible with Finnish values and culture. It’s a fact that the less Islamic a Muslim is, the more likely he/she will be more tolerant and integrating than those who follow the letter of the Mohammedan creed. Less Mohammedan ideology, and more influence from non-Islamic sources, the more likable and integrating the Muslim.
“The attitude has largely remained the same since the 1980s,” Martikainen says.
Survey: Finnish attitudes towards Islam steepest in Europe- 62 percent believe Islam incompatible with Finnish culture
Pew studied religious attitudes in 15 European countries. In Finland, attitudes towards Islam seem to be the most striking concerning values and culture.
According to the US-based Pew Research Institute, as many as 62 percent of Finns believe Islam is not compatible with Finnish culture and Finnish values.
Christians in the church were even more radical in the matter. 67% of them believe that Islam is not suitable for Finland. Also, the majority of Finns who do not report any religious tendency say that Islam does not fit into the values of Finns.
Respondents were asked what they think of the argument that ‘ Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Finnish culture and Finnish values ‘. The second answer was that there was no contradiction.
Respondents were asked to take a position, even though neither of these allegations was entirely in line with their opinion.
In Finland, attitudes are strongest – Sweden, Portugal and France on the other side
Pew explained attitudes in 15 countries in Western Europe. In Finland, attitudes appear steeper in terms of culture and values. In Portugal, 31% of respondents said that Islam was incompatible with Portuguese values and culture. In Sweden and France, the corresponding figure was 34%.
Austria is an interesting case. There has been intense debate on Islam and immigration in recent years, but still the attitudes towards Islam seem milder than in Finland. In Austria, 48% of respondents said that Islam was incompatible with Austrian values and culture.
Results in Finnish surveys
In a large study (going to another service), Pew presented several questions related to religion. A clear majority of Finns, 83%, are prepared to accept Muslim as their neighbour.
Professor Tuomas Martikainen from the University of Helsinki says that the research results are very similar to the results obtained in Finnish studies.
The Finns take a very critical view on Islam as a religion
Tuomas Martikainen, docent of religious science
– Finns are very critical of Islam as a religion. Instead, the attitude towards Muslims as individuals is significantly more positive, says Martikainen.
In Italy, the attitudes towards Muslim neighbours were the most negative, although 65% of respondents, too, would accept Muslim neighbours.
