55 Percent of Europeans Want Moratorium on Islamic Immigration
In light of the recent spat between the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump, it is worth remembering that most Britons actually agree with Trump when it comes to Islam. That is, most Britons are either skeptical or fearful of Islam’s place in British society.
BBC reports that a mere 28 percent of British people believe that “Islam is compatible with British values”—the other 72 percent believe that Islam is incompatible, or are unsure. This highlights the deep divide between the British people and Theresa May’s politically correct government.
The poll also found that 43 percent of Britons believe Islam is a negative force in the UK, 31 percent think Islam promotes acts of violence in the UK, and 28 percent agree that Islam is an inherently violent religion.
Although these findings are interesting, the more interesting piece of information comes from data collected by Chatham House. Their detailed polling finds that the majority of Europeans favor a complete moratorium on Islamic immigration into their countries. The United Kingdom and Spain are the only two major European countries where a moratorium is a minority opinion.
According to the report:
Majorities in all but two of the ten states agreed [with a moratorium on Islamic immigration], ranging from 71% in Poland, 65% in Austria, 53% in Germany and 51% in Italy to 47% in the United Kingdom and 41% in Spain. In no country did the percentage that disagreed surpass 32%.
Public opposition to further migration from Muslim states is especially intense in Austria, Poland, Hungary, France and Belgium, despite these countries having very different sized resident Muslim populations. In each of these countries, at least 38% of the sample ‘strongly agreed’ with the statement. With the exception of Poland, these countries have either been at the centre of the refugee crisis or experienced terrorist attacks in recent years. It is also worth noting that in most of these states the radical right is, to varying degrees, entrenched as a political force and is looking to mobilize this angst over Islam into the ballot box, either at elections in 2017 or longer term.
The polling data from Chatham House is consonant with data collected by other entities.
For example, Pew Research found that the majority of Europeans (59 percent) believe that Islamic migration increases the likelihood of terrorist attacks in Europe. Furthermore, strong majorities in Hungary (72 percent), Italy (69 percent), and Poland (66 percent) have negative views towards Islam as a religion itself.
Of course, none of this data is surprising when placed in its broader context. Europeans are right to link Islamic immigration and terrorism. Even the European Union’s terror chief admits that some 35,000 Islamic “fanatics” currently reside in Great Britain.
Likewise, many Europeans are worried about the impact of immigration on their welfare states. Again, they are right to be concerned. In the UK just 20 percent of Muslims work full time, while in Denmark non-Western immigrants consume 59 percent of Denmark’s tax surplus. Europe’s welfare states cannot survive under a regime of high migration—this is not conjecture, it is an objective fact.
Europe will have to choose between immigration and social welfare—they cannot have both.
