50% of Canadians Hold a Negative View of Islam.
A recent public survey conducted by Leger revealed concerning trends in how Canadians perceive both Islam and Judaism.
The Results:
Islam: Only 26% of Canadians reported a positive opinion of Islam, while 50% expressed a negative view. In March 2025, when Leger last asked similar questions, the results were slightly more favorable, with 30% positive and 49% negative.
Judaism: The survey found that 40% of respondents held a positive opinion of Judaism, down from 49%. Meanwhile, 32% had a negative view, an increase from 25%. The intensity of these opinions also changed: only 9% described their view of Judaism as “very positive,” a drop from 16%, while 12% labeled it “very negative,” up from 8%. For Islam, 28% of respondents reported a “very negative” view, increasing from 24% in March 2025.
In 2025, Statistics Canada recorded 204 police-reported hate crimes motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment, an 11% decrease from 230 in 2024. However, this decline is part of a troubling upward trend over the previous year, following a staggering 94% increase in 2024. This surge highlighted a period of heightened hostility towards Muslim communities across Canada, particularly in Ontario and British Columbia, with Ontario seeing a 71% increase in Islamophobic incidents.
In the same year, StatsCan noted 788 hate crimes targeting Jewish individuals, a 16% decrease from 943 the previous year. Nevertheless, these incidents still account for 71% of all religion-motivated hate crimes. Overall, religion-motivated hate crimes fell by 18%, totaling 1,115 incidents.
When the survey inquired about attitudes towards Jews and Arabs as groups, 60% expressed a positive view of Jews—20 percentage points higher than the positive perception of Judaism—while 44% felt similarly about Arabs, compared to 26% for Islam. It’s important to note that not all Muslims are Arab, and not every Arab is Muslim. Negative views of Arabs increased from 26% to 33% since March 2025, while negative views of Jews rose by 2% to 16%.
One noteworthy finding from the survey is that the youngest Canadians showed a different trend. Among those aged 18 to 24, 41% had a positive view of Islam, compared to only 22% to 26% in other age groups.
Quebec and francophone Canada presented contrasting results. Among French speakers, only 16% held a positive view of Islam and 25% viewed Judaism positively, the lowest among any language group. Interestingly, this group was the only one to rate atheism higher than Christianity.
Regarding Christianity, 57% of respondents expressed a positive opinion, a slight decrease from 58%. Additionally, those identifying as “very positive” toward Christianity dropped six points to 20%.
Atheism was included in the survey for the first time in June 2026, revealing that 50% of participants held positive views about atheism, while 29% had no opinion—the largest share of undecided responses in the survey.
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