Aragorn
12-03-2009, 02:22 PM
Minaret ban favoured by one in four Swedes: poll
One in four Swedes is in favour of prohibiting the building of more minarets in the country, a new poll shows.
According to a poll conducted by the Sifo polling firm in conjunction with Sveriges Television (SVT), 26 percent of Swedes support putting a stop to any new construction of minarets.
Less than half of the poll’s 1,659 respondents were in favour of allowing more minarets to be built in Sweden.
The highest level of opposition to the building of more minarets is in Malmö in southern Sweden, where 39 percent of respondents supported a ban on further construction.
Currently there are five mosques in Sweden, but six minarets, as the mosque in Malmö has two, according to SVT.
The poll comes less than a week after a referendum passed in Switzerland banning the building of any more minarets in the country.
Jan Hjärpe, an emeritus professor of Islamic Studies at Lund University, told the Aftonbladet newspaper that the proportion of Swedes in favour of a ban is “roughly the same” as in Switzerland.
“Populist xenophobia exists in every fourth person. It’s clearly the general state of affairs throughout Europe,” he told the newspaper.
http://www.thelocal.se/23636/20091203/
One in four Swedes is in favour of prohibiting the building of more minarets in the country, a new poll shows.
According to a poll conducted by the Sifo polling firm in conjunction with Sveriges Television (SVT), 26 percent of Swedes support putting a stop to any new construction of minarets.
Less than half of the poll’s 1,659 respondents were in favour of allowing more minarets to be built in Sweden.
The highest level of opposition to the building of more minarets is in Malmö in southern Sweden, where 39 percent of respondents supported a ban on further construction.
Currently there are five mosques in Sweden, but six minarets, as the mosque in Malmö has two, according to SVT.
The poll comes less than a week after a referendum passed in Switzerland banning the building of any more minarets in the country.
Jan Hjärpe, an emeritus professor of Islamic Studies at Lund University, told the Aftonbladet newspaper that the proportion of Swedes in favour of a ban is “roughly the same” as in Switzerland.
“Populist xenophobia exists in every fourth person. It’s clearly the general state of affairs throughout Europe,” he told the newspaper.
http://www.thelocal.se/23636/20091203/