Islam in Europe: perception and reality

[Regina]

I don't think the "6%" statistic says much at the national level though.

Here in the UK, the national statistic is "only" something like 4% - but that ignores how a large proportion of that "4%" tends to band together into Muslim-majority neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods are, there's no better phrase, absolute bastions of Islam. You wouldn't feel any type of way by "6%" of a country being a particular faith, if they were evenly spread among the general population (the way Jews, Hindus, and Christian minorities are in most societies). When you have literally entire neighbourhoods dominated by Islam though, especially when they often have disapproving attitudes towards modern Western lifestyles, it's understandable why people feel ways about that.

And people are still caught up in the "not all Muslims!" I see as well. We know that, I personally know a few Muslims who are integrated, modern, liberal. But that doesn't change how still a very large segment (who are often very loud, and sometimes violent) are highly conservative and struggle to fit in within European society. Overall it's a conservative culture, while modern European cultures (again, overall, not completely) aren't. There is naturally going to be conflict there.