Source: Nanaimo Daily News.
A new national survey that tapped the level of “positiveness” that Canadians feel toward selected groups suggests that Muslims – significantly more than 10 other subsets of society – remain a magnet for negativity a decade after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
Just 43 per cent of the 2,345 people polled by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies expressed “very positive” or “somewhat positive” perceptions of Muslims, while atheists (60 per cent) and aboriginals (61 per cent) also drew relatively lukewarm responses.
Meanwhile, seven other groups generated positive perceptions from respondents. Chinese people, who narrowly topped the results at 75 per cent, were followed by Protestants, Blacks and Hispanics/Latin Americans (all 74 per cent), Catholics (73), Jews (72) and francophones (70).
The category “immigrants” prompted positive responses from 68 per cent of those surveyed.
The results were drawn from an online poll covering a range of issues and conducted by the firm Leger Marketing between Sept. 20 and Oct. 3. The survey is considered to have a margin of error of two per cent, 19 times out of 20.
ACS executive director Jack Jedwab said the markedly more negative response to Muslims is matched by similar polling results in Britain and the U.S., making clear that the challenge of improving perceptions of the vast majority of Muslims who reject Islamist extremism is a multinational task.
“Most of these perceptions are built around images that people see globally,” said Jedwab.
The similar findings in other Western nations “suggests this isn’t a Canadian-specific issue . . . I’m not saying we shouldn’t have programs” and policies in Canada to improve general perceptions of Muslims, “but the impact of those programs is limited if we don’t have global cooperation.”
The results of the new poll echo the findings of a previous ACS survey just ahead of last month’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which showed that a majority of Canadians believes conflict between Western nations and the Muslim world is “irreconcilable.”
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http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=5556588
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Canada
This survey prompted me to write a letter to the Editor, Edmonton Journal which was published today. I think all Muslims should get united and remove those misconceptions. It is good to see that Ahmadiyya Muslims are taking a leadership role on knocking at doors, organizing Interfaith dialogues and other events. This momentum should be kept up. The letter can be seen in todays Edmonton Journa. Thanks