PERHAPS we shouldn’t be surprised that Islam is seen as a threat to our way of life in Europe – at least according to a survey carried out across 21 European countries.

One account of the poll is in this Sunday Express story. It shows that an “overwhelming majority” of Europeans believe the threat comes from immigration from Islamic countries.

And the poll also warns that the Muslim population in Europe will treble in the next seventeen years. The paper says that the poll “reported ‘a severe deficit of trust is found between the Western and Muslim communities’, with most people wanting less interaction with the Muslim world”.

Last night [the Express story continues] an MP warned it showed that political leaders in Britain who preach the benefits of unlimited immigration were dangerously out of touch with the public.

The study, whose authors include the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, was commissioned for leaders at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

It reports “a growing fear among Europeans of a perceived Islamic threat to their cultural identities, driven in part by immigration from predominantly Muslim nations”.

Why, then, is this not surprising? Well, hardly a day goes by without our hearing a story about demands here and protests there; about a threat to freedom of speech or expression; about more religious schools; about plans for a super-mosque; about demands for prayer rooms and other special concessions in the workplace; about demands for changes in the law to accommodate Islamic preferences (see Barry Duke’s story, for instance, “Shariah through the bank door”). No wonder some Muslims wring their hands and wish their more bothersome brethren would stay quiet and get on with integrating, keeping their religious practices to the private sphere.

We’re not the only ones not to be surprised by this poll, either. The backbench Tory MP David Davies tells the Express, “I am not surprised by these findings. People are fed up with multiculturalism and being told they have to give up their way of life. Most people in Britain expect anyone who comes here to be willing to learn our language and fit in with us.”

The story goes on:

Mr Davies, who serves on the Commons Home Affairs Committee, added: “People do get annoyed when they see millions spent on translating documents and legal aid being given to people fighting for the right to wear a head-to-toe covering at school.

“A lot of people are very uncomfortable with the changes being caused by immigration and politicians have been too slow to wake up to that.”

The report says that people have little enthusiasm for greater understanding with Islam and attempts to improve relations have been “disappointing”. And, with the Muslim population expected to reach 15 per cent by 2025, the report predicts: “Any deterioration on the international front will be felt most severely in Europe.”

The paper quotes a “leading Muslim academic” (why are all representatives the journos wheel on “leading” or “top”?), Haleh Afshar, of York University, who blamed media “hysteria”  for the findings. She says, “There is an absence of trust towards Muslims, but to my mind that is very much driven by an [sic] uninformed media.

“To blame immigration is much harder because the current influx of immigrants from eastern Europe are by-and-large not Muslim.”