The Financial Times is running a Muslims in Europe series at the moment and have commissioned a poll across Germany, Spain, France, Italy, US and the UK which shows further evidence for the British tendency to be hostile in general to (in this case Muslim) immigrants but actually quite tolerant or friendly in particular. The British were most likely to predict a major terrorist attack in their country in the next 12 months, consider Muslims a threat to national security and believe Muslims have too much political power. However on more personal measures of integration - having Muslim friends or accepting the marriage of their child to a Muslim, Britons were more enthusiastic than some other countries (well actually only Germany and the US as far as I can work out from the article).
France was most at ease with its Muslim population. Patrick Weil, a political scientist at the Sorbonne summed it up nicely: "In France we are very good at cultural integration. We are very bad in fighting discrimination, especially in high-level jobs. In the UK it is the opposite."
In France and to a lesser extent Britain, religion is seen as a private affair, with less than 25% supporting the idea of faith schools and also many having misgivings about religious attire at work or in public places. Spain is more enthusiastic about faith schools and Italy more accepting of religious attire.
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