Christians in western Europe are less accepting of immigrants and non-Christians than people without religious affiliations, a study published Tuesday that was based on a 15-country survey found.
The Pew Research Center report revealed that Christians — whether or not they are churchgoers — are more likely than western Europeans who don't identify with a religion to express negative views of Muslims, Jews and migrants. They also are more inclined to think their country's culture and values are superior.
"On balance, more respondents say immigrants are honest and hardworking than say the opposite," the study's authors wrote. "But a clear pattern emerges: Both church-attending and non-practicing Christians are more likely than religiously unaffiliated adults in Western Europe to voice anti-immigrant and anti-minority views."
"Undercurrents of discomfort with multiculturalism are evident in Western European societies," the researchers wrote in the report
The study was based on a telephone survey of 24,599 randomly selected adults in the 15 countries. Pew researchers compared the attitudes of respondents who described themselves as practicing Christians, non-practicing Christians and religiously unaffiliated, including atheists and agnostics.
One of their findings was that ethnic Europeans as a whole hold "mixed views on whether Islam is compatible with their country's values and culture."
In Britain, 45 percent of churchgoing Christians and 47 percent of non-practicing Christians agreed with the statement that "Islam is fundamentally incompatible with our values and culture, the survey showed. Among non-religious Britons, 30 percent shared that view.
In France, nearly three-quarters of church-attending Christians, or 72 percent, agreed it was important to have French ancestry to be "truly French." Among non-practicing Christians, 52 percent took this position, compared to 43 percent of those without religious affiliations.
The survey was conducted during April-August 2017, after more than 2.3 million migrants and refugees had entered Europe during the previous two years, according to the European border control agency Frontex. Some European countries, including Germany and Italy, have seen an anti-immigration backlash and nationalist political parties gaining support.
The survey found that Swedes were the least likely to express nationalist, anti-migrant and anti-minority views, while Italians were the most likely.
Although Muslim newcomers have been the focus of far-right campaigns to seal Europe's borders, the survey also asked about attitudes toward Jews in western Europe.
For example, 36 percent of Italians, more than in any other country, agreed with the statement that, "Jews always overstate how much they have suffered," compared to the 11 percent of Swedes who did.
However, anti-Muslim sentiment exceeded anti-Semitism in every country.
When asked "Would you be willing to accept a Jew as a family member?" 19 per cent of the respondents in Germany answered negatively, while 33 per cent said "no" to those from a Muslim background.
According to the study, more than half of German Catholics said they were unwilling to accept Muslims as family members, while only 16 per cent of Protestants shared this view.
A hotly debated question in some parts of Europe is whether Muslim women should be prohibited from wearing concealing garments such as burkas. Most of the adults Pew surveyed supported at least some restrictions on religious dress.
Some 30 percent of those surveyed in Italy, 28 percent in Belgium and 24 percent in both Germany and Austria agreed that Muslim women "should not be allowed to wear any religious clothing."
Across the 15 countries where people were surveyed, the median was 22 percent, while half agreed Muslim women should be able to wear religious clothing as long as it does not cover their faces.
Pew said the survey had a margin of error of 2.7 to 3.3 percentage points depending on the number of people questioned in each country.
The study found that the number of people claiming to belong to a Christian denomination has fallen in all Western European states since 2002.
Many respondents claim their rejection of Christianity stems from disagreements with the church's views on homosexuality and abortion, their other religious teachings, or recent scandals.