France and Germany less tolerant of Muslims than Britain

According to new research, Muslim youths find it far easier to assimilate in Britain than France or Germany. The study finds that Muslim youths “feel much more at ease in Britain than do their counterparts in the other mentioned countries.”

The study stopped short of blaming overt racism in France and Germany, instead declaring that, “perceptions of discrimination were lowest in Britain and highest in Germany.” The research was conducted by Lancaster University and is to be published in book form next month. The work is based on a survey of more than 2,500 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 in the three countries. In Britain, the youths mostly came from families originating from the Indian subcontinent. In France, youths of migrant parents from Morocco and Algeria were surveyed and, in Germany, the Muslims came from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia. “Britain’s model of multiculturalism is proving far more effective for the incorporation of ethnic minority groups than the French ‘assimilation’ or German ‘ethnic nationalist’ ones,” said Professor Roger Penn, co-author of the report in The National, a digital newspaper published by Abu Dhabi Media Company. Although the bulk of Muslim youths in Britain expressed little or no interest in politics, their counterparts from North Africa in France were far more politically active, along with Turkish youths in Germany. During the riots of 2005 in France, media largely focused on Muslim youth as perpetrating the civil unrest in that country. Rukaiya Jeraj, the head of advocacy at the Muslim Youth Helpline in Britain, said the report highlighted the fact that “young British Muslims are connected and assimilated in the UK thanks to our country’s multi-cultural approach.” Another unique aspect of British Muslims is that the British group proved to be three times more likely to go to university than their contemporaries in either France or Germany. Recently, France has been the epicenter of an odd controversy regarding the wearing of Burqas and Burkinis. A woman in France, a convert to Islam, was recently turned away from a public pool for wearing a burkini: the Muslim answer to the more liberal bikini. France has generally taken a hard line towards Muslims who wear religious clothing in French schools and other public places; however Britain takes a more relaxed approach.