Sociological Survey: Most Europeans Wary of Muslims, Immigrants

A high percentage of Europeans have negative feelings towards Muslims and immigrants, writes Weiss magazine, citing a large-scale sociological survey in eight European countries.

The poll was conducted among 12,000 people from Sweden, France, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands and Italy. It shows people's great distrust of the governments and high levels of disillusionment with the actions of politicians.

The study was commissioned as part of a report on spreading far-right extremism and bad attitude towards minorities during the coronavirus pandemic.

One in four Europeans have negative feelings about Muslims.

The study's authors reported different levels of support for the "Great Replacement" theory, according to which elites promote immigration to undermine European values.

While in the UK only 16 percent said they supported the conspiracy theories, in Italy 39 percent thought it was definitely or probably true. In Hungary, 40 percent of respondents share the same opinion.

The report was prepared by the British NGO against racism and fascism "Hope, Not Hate" and the anti-extremist groups Expo and the Amadeu Antonio Foundation.

Hungary has the most hostile attitude towards minorities - 60% of respondents view immigrants very or quite negatively, 54% feel the same about Muslims, although in the country Muslims represent only 0.4% of the population.

Britain has the lowest anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment among the countries surveyed - 30 percent of respondents view immigrants negatively and 26 percent do not like Muslims.

Immigration is seen as one of the four major concerns for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Italy has the highest level of...