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CAIR-CAN – February 13, 2007
Poll shows Canadian Muslims well integrated
OTTAWA, CANADA – Feb.13, 2007 - The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) today welcomed results the Environics survey indicating that the vast majority (81 percent) of Muslims are satisfied with their lives and that only a small minority (17 percent) sense hostility to their faith from other citizens.
CAIR-CAN said that while the results of the survey of 500 Canadian Muslims and 2,045 members of the general population were generally positive, the poll did raise concerns about the need for religious accommodation.
For example, while 73 per cent of Canadian Muslims said they are "very proud" to be called Canadians, 36 percent of Canadians of other faiths said they would ban Islamic headscarves in public places. Almost half (49 percent) of the general population said new immigrants should blend in with the rest of the society.
"This survey clearly indicates that Canadian Muslims are well-integrated and happy with their lives in this nation," said CAIR-CAN Executive Director Karl Nickner. "Some of the survey results do however demonstrate a need for more public education on the issue of religious rights and accommodation."
Nickner added that the Canada's Muslim community has a history that stretches back more than 150 years. He said that viewing Canadian Muslims solely from the perspective of new immigrants serves to negate that history.
CBC News - February 13, 2007
Glad to be Canadian, Muslims say
More than 80 per cent of Canada's roughly 700,000 Muslims are broadly satisfied with their lives here and only a very small percentage — 17 per cent — feel that many or most Canadians are hostile toward their religion.
According to a new Environics poll conducted in association with the CBC, a much larger proportion of Canadian Muslims is satisfied with the way things are going today than is the case in Europe. The proportion is greater even than the 61 per cent of Canadians who generally feel their lives are on the right track.
At the same time, there are clearly different perceptions between the Muslim community and other Canadians over such flashpoint issues as integration, the role of women and the wearing of headscarves.
And despite intensive efforts by the Stephen Harper government to reach out and recruit prominent Muslims to its cause — witness the recent floor-crossing of former Liberal MP Wajid Khan — there is little sense that this is yet taking hold.
Asked whom they intend to vote for in the next federal election, 54 per cent of Muslim respondents said the Liberals, 13 per cent said NDP, and only seven per cent said the Conservatives, which is virtually the same way they voted in the last election.
These are some of the key findings of a wide-ranging new survey of Muslim attitudes in Canada as well as attitudes toward them.
The survey — conducted by Environics Research Group in conjunction with the CBC and other clients — interviewed 500 Canadian Muslims and 2,045 members of the general population between Nov. 30, 2006 and Jan. 5, 2007 and is said to be accurate within 4.4 percentage points and 2.2 percentage points respectively, 19 times out of a 20.
In general terms, the poll found that 73 per cent of Canadian Muslims describe themselves as "very proud" to be called Canadians, even if many of them see their religion as coming first in certain instances. As well, they have very little sympathy for extremists or terrorist groups and they aren't crazy about the northern climate — it tops the list of things they like least.
Asked about the arrests last summer of the 18 Muslim men and boys who were allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in southern Ontario, 73 per cent of the Muslim respondents said these attacks were not at all justified and 82 per cent said they had no sympathy for those who wanted to carry them out.
Canada's Muslims have different priorities, the poll suggests. Unemployment and immigration issues are more important to them than the health care and environmental concerns that are driving other Canadians…..
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/02/12/muslim-poll.html
CanWest News Service – February 8, 2007
Canadians show least bias toward Muslims
Randy Boswell
Canadians are least likely among citizens of 23 Western countries to be bigoted toward Muslims, according to a new international study that measured "Islamophobia" in each nation.
More than 32,000 respondents from 19 European countries, plus Canada, the United States, 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 recently drew international attention for the CBC's 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 United States were 14.1 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively, and negative responses across all western countries averaged 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 toward, people who are 'different,' " argue the study's co-authors, economists Vani Borooah of the University of Ulster and John Mangan of the University of Queensland in Australia.
Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry Is There in Western Countries? is to be published in Kyklos, the International Review for Social Sciences.
Salma Siddiqui, an official with the Toronto-based Muslim Canadian Congress, said yesterday the survey results reflect the fact Canada is a very tolerant nation. "We are lucky to be living in a country that recognizes all human rights," she said…..
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=bd5f2a21-b16e-401c-bd6c-efbade8ba32d
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