A majority of Muslims in Europe hold fundamentalist beliefs, a study conducted by migration expert Ruud Koopmans of the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre has shown.

The findings are derived from a federally sponsored survey of immigrants and citizens of six European countries — Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Sweden — conducted in the first half of 2008.

In total, 9,000 people of Turkish or Moroccan background and an equal number of native-born citizens were interviewed.

Overall, two thirds of the Muslim respondents said they considered Islamic law to override the laws of the European countries where they are living.

Three quarters of those interviewed said they believed that there was only one possible interpretation of the Koran.

Reportedly, Islamic fundamentalism was found to be most extreme in Austria.

By contrast, among Christian respondents, only 13 percent said religious laws took precedence over civil laws. About 20 per cent believed that the New Testament is not open to interpretation.