Henning Meyer from the Social Europe Journal turned my attention to this report of the Pew Global Attitudes Project measuring the public approval of the ban of face-covering veils (burqas). What I did was to compare the data for the approval rate with the percentage of the Muslim population in the respective countries (data was obtained from the 2009 report of the Pew Research Center). Not surprisingly, there is a strong positive correlation between the percentage of Muslim population in Western countries and the support for the burqa ban (correlation= 0,84, R2=0,71).
The US citizens are somewhat more tolerant than the average and Britons somewhat less, but the overall correlation is quite strong.
interesting correlation, but I think it’s not only about that… For instance, the political agenda, the media, etc. could play a major role
Sure, this is a very simple piece of analysis based on limited data without considering any context. There’s a lot more that can and must be done to get the whole picture.
Good point Vihar. Loved it. Very useful information.
As Hussam and you said, more variables have to be taken into account to get the whole (complex) picture.
The fact that the US citizens are more tolerant really surprises me.
Thanks.