How do non-muslim Europeans feel about Muslims?

Question

I understand that there have been a lot of anti-Muslim sentiments expressed in Europe, and culture clashes between Europeans and people from Middle Eastern descent. How do the majority of Europeans feel about muslims/islam, and their roles in European countries?
this is not a free for all to post messages of hate. I just want to see how Europeans feel about this increasingly sensitive issue.

What I mean is, do you as Europeans find yourselves more wary and more skeptical of Muslims/Muslim schools/ Muslims appaerel, particularly after the London tube bombings, the murder of M. VanGogh in Holland, etc?

Answer 1

Some answerers have swallowed the governements line that it is a small minority of muslims terrorists giving the rest a bad name.Utter nonsense.
I have never heard a muslim denouncing these acts of barbarity without trying to justify them.
A muslim is a muslim is a muslim.

To be a true follower of islam,one needs to follow the teachings of the quoran literally.Of course the quoran teaches destruction of the infidels(aka everyone who isnt a muslim).

these people have brought terror,discomfort and irritation to our beloved country.And what have they brought to the table?Surely there is room for them in the oil rich countries of Iran and saudi.

They have reduced our towns and cities to replicas of their own filthy slum habitats of origin.

This is how it is.If anyone is offended by the truth.Tough!

Answer 2

I have relatives in Norway, and they have made it a point to take in Muslim emigres as a humanitarian gesture. The government makes the decision and passes that responsibility to the local communities though, including the financial consequences. Those who don't work to integrate and become self sufficient become an irritant. They also have an official state religion which is a Lutheran variant and pay all church employees from tax income. In deference to other faiths, they pay a stipend to any other house of worship according to its registered membership, so they recognize the social benefit of religion and allow similar benefits to all faiths. Offerings are generally for missionary and charity work, not to support the church staff and maintain its property--regardless of the faith. Then it was discovered that the Muslims would register at several Mosques to inflate the membership and reap an unfair share of the government stipend. They think this is fair because there is nothing wrong if it is done to a Christian. That doesn't sit well with the native people. Finally, Norway is known as being one of the most civil places left in the world. The Reader's Digest did a study years ago that involved dropping wallets with money and ID in various cities aroung the world, and Oslo was the place where you were most likely to get the wallet back, with the money. The family I am related to is centered around a small coastal town. The nature of the town has changed dramatically. Daytime, nighttime--there was no difference as far as personal safety. That has changed. Crime has increased, and the streets aren't as safe as they used to be. Do you really have to look any farther for the reason that right-wing parties are becoming more attractive? The behavior and lack of what we would call traditional morals among Muslims has generated a fair amount of well-deserved bitterness.

Answer 3

I'm from Lisbon, here there are many muslims, most of them guineans or mozambicans, who are quite different from arab muslims, for exmaple, women don't usually wear veils. Comparing to other countries, they adapt a lot more to the main society, as quite every immigrant communities do, anyway, if they were to be discriminated it would be because they are blacks, not because they are muslims. There's a widespread stereotype that muslim man don't treat women with respect, but that isn't a big, deal, machism is also damn common in our culture (latin males!), so I don't think we actually have a bad view on muslims

Answer 4

There is a failure of the Muslims to accept that Europeans have wrecked there continent many times with vicious bloody wars through extremism Fascism Communism and so on. So we know extremism when we see it. Religion is something personal to each individual on how they approach god. Muslims living in Europe cannot except that that we will not bend to there beliefs and there hot heads have said things that were guaranteed to set European hot heads off such as stating they ( the Muslims) will not be happy until the flag of Islam flys above the houses of Parliament. On the other hand we have not helped by riding roughshod over Muslim lands. I cant see it getting any better we are seeing the end of a great experiment of multi cultural society and it has failed Europeans have tried to build that melting pot that the USA did and it has died on the vine We are just to tribal here. The Balkan war is a perfect example how easily we can turn on our neighbours.

Answer 5

Yes, that's a good question! Islam has seen the provision of much of what we in the "west" take for granted. We owe our numeric system to it (but the concept of zero, without which numbers above 9 don't work , probably came from India), and much more than that. Unfortunately, all religions down the ages have been used by sadists and bigots , to name but a few, as an excuse to peddle their perversions. The present time is not exempt.

Answer 6

Frankly I can't see how a person's religion biases your opinion of them, you either like that person or you don't. We don't actually know the religion of most of the people we meet and we rarely ask them, do we? There are a lot of Muslims who live in my area and we all get along just fine, we always have done. If I were you I wouldn't believe what you see in the media. We are in and out of each others' houses, we shop together, we eat together, we kiss each others' children. We all celebrate Christmas and we all celebrate Eid. This is how the world is meant to be, we made our world that way and we'll keep it that way.

Answer 7

I have no problems with Muslims whatsover, I'm proud to say that England is multicultural, HOWEVER Some muslims (And I'm not, in any way, referring to all muslims) tend to use Islam against english people. For instance, every bombing in England is done by Muslims because they can't stand the fact that we have a different religion too.
They use their religion, to make english people seem racist. For example the issue that arose with the teacher and the veil? That muslim teacher refused to remove her veil on religious grounds, and when she was suspended, it came out that it was on racist grounds. That is completely untrue as the fact is she was suspended because the kids had difficulty understanding her through the veil. It had nothing whatsoever to do with racism.
But as I say-it is NOT all muslims, only a select few. They have their beliefs, like Christians have their beliefs and so on. Religions should be respected but NOT shoved down the throats of innocent people who want nothing to do with either religion. It causes war and people die because of conflict caused by religion.
Another point to make is that we are often seen as racist if a gang of white people attack a person of asian origion. If that happens then there is an uproar but on a total opposite, if a gang of asians attacked a white man, they would not be prosecuted because this would be seen as "racist" on our behalf. You see what I mean? We are extremely lenient with other cultures. For example, a muslim can build a mosque in England but if we went to a Muslim country, could we build a church of England? No. Would we be able to wear clothes that don't cover us from head to foot? No. I think some Muslims expect everything to be done their way, almost forgetting they are in a british country.
This is my opinion and I apologise now if my comments have offended anyone but I'm completely ok with Muslims
I know some lovely people who are Islamic, and it is interesting learning about different cultures.
Only a select few are ruining it for the rest - but that applies to non-muslims too.

Answer 8

They make me nervous. I dont trust them and I dont like being around them. To each their own but their religious system is backward and oppressive at best, and seemingly wide open to mis-interpretation by the scummy elements who would use it as an excuse to wage war on innocents and terrorise. For some of them to take residence in our countries with a view to attacking us from within is despicable and downright ungrateful. They are entitled to whatever views they hold but they should either keep them to themselves or go back to their own country and shout and scream about it there. Asking how europeans feel about them is kind of general, I'm sure people in the UK on the whole have much stronger views about this than people in France and Germany for example, since those countries do not seem to be as much as a target for terrorism. I know Muslim does not equal terrorist, but many associate the two since recent acts of terror have been perpetraded by Muslims. The Muslim community as a whole is also not seen to be doing enough to put their house in order with regards to self regulation and renouncing violence. Perhaps if they did more to control their own folk more they wouldnt always be complaining about being treated with suspicion. Put it this way, at the moment, if you worked for example as airport security wouldnt you be failing in your job if you didnt scrutinise Muslims more closely than you would non-Muslims. Their own people are the cause of this unfriendly state of affairs yet they are either indifferent or complain endlessly. this kind of attitude just comes across as arrogance.

Answer 9

I've never had any problem with Muslims - a lot of my friends are muslims - but I have become a little more wary of Muslims in general now that they have started blowing us up.

Answer 10

I'm very wary of all muslim people. Eventhough some folk say you tarnish them all with the brush, sorry but i have.