BERLIN – After the right-wing German party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), last week launched its anti-Islam programme, a new survey has revealed that almost 60 per cent of the population want “no place for Islam in Germany”, the Russia Today television channel reported on Thursday. Conducted by the Bild newspaper together with research institute INSA, the poll showed a dramatic change in the attitude of the German population to Islam over the past year. In January 2015, 37 per cent of people said that Islam had a place in Germany, but the figure in the latest poll dropped by 15 percentage points to just 22 per cent. The suspicion towards Islam is overwhelming among AfD voters, 92 per cent of whom supported their party’s stance, but was spread among members of other parties as well. Only supporters of the Green party were more in favour of Islam than against it (42 per cent versus 39 per cent). The negative attitude toward the religion, however, does not directly translate into mistrust toward those adhering to it. Less than 30 per cent said they would not like to live alongside Muslim people, while almost half said they were fine with it. The AfD adopted its new party programme last week, which has an entire section called “Islam is not part of Germany”. Among other things, the party wants to ban the construction of mosques and public wearing of the burqa, the full-cover clothing women wear in some Muslim countries. Critics accuse AfD of playing the xenophobic card and preying on people’s fears. The Council of Muslims in Germany has compared the party’s ideas to Nazi ideology. Still, the AfD won elections in three regions recently.