GENEVA,
April 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A majority of German school
students are well acquainted with Islam, a German poll has found.
The
poll, conducted by the Eltem for Family magazine and involving 1,574
students of the 10-19 age groups, found that 75 percent of the
respondents do recognize Muslims by appearance.
Around
50 percent of those polled were aware that Muslim women put on hijab,
added the survey, published by the German news Web site N 24 last
week.
It
further found that some 55 percent of the school students knew that
Muslims call God “Allah”.
The
poll said that many students surprisingly knew some basic rites in
Islam like hajj and prayers.
When
asked about what she knew about Islam, a 15-year-old schoolgirl said
that Muslims should perform hajj once in a lifetime, while another
said that Muslims take the direction of Ka'aba, in the Saudi holy city
of Makkah, when they pray.
A
third student said that Muslim women should be modestly dressed.
Islam
comes third in Germany after Protestant and Catholic Christianity.
There
are some 3.4 million Muslims in the country, including 220,000 in
Berlin, and Turks make up an estimated two thirds of the Muslim
minority.
Misunderstood
A
large percentage of the surveyed students also believe that Islam was
misunderstood in many cases.
A
15-year-old student said that Islam was an “interesting” religion
while another said it was a “good” faith.
A
high school student regretted that some people were carrying out
terrorist operations and ill-treating women in the name of Islam.
Forty
percent of those polled, however, had stereotypes about Islam from the
media.
A
female student said that the word Islam conjures up images of hijab
and oppression of women.
Another
believed that under Islam men take all and women have nothing.
IslamOnline.net's
correspondent says that German media helped form such a negative
perception of Islam.
He
adds that most media outlets insist on equating Islam as a faith with
some bad habits and traditions of some Muslims.
He
notes that some programs that speak ill of Islam and hijab are
presented by young Muslim Germans.
Some
observers have contended that continued raids on mosques by security
forces have drown a negative outlook of the Muslims’ places of
worship as nothing short of “terrorists’ nests”.
The
United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted on April 12 a
resolution on combating defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims
in the West.
