Most European leaders have reacted with horror to President Trump's travel ban on people coming from seven mostly Islamic countries. Their media elites are nearly hair-on-fire hysterical, judging by the latest cover of Der Spiegel.

The European objections fall within a fairly well-established stereotype about Europeans and Americans that I think is shared on both sides of the Atlantic. Americans err on the side of being bigoted, nutty and reckless; Europeans on the side of being complacent and fearful to offend anyone.

But the stereotype isn't generally true of either group. And a new poll of Europeans on the issue of Muslim immigration — taken before Trump's executive order — offers a clear demonstration.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs, a British think tank, asked more than 10,000 respondents from 10 European countries whether they agreed with the following statement: "All further migration from mainly Muslim countries should be stopped."

Fifty-five percent of Europeans, and 47 percent of Britons, said they did agree with this statement. Eastern European nationals were far more likely to agree. In no country surveyed did the share who disagreed with that statement exceed 32 percent.



Note that the statement put to respondents is a fairly radical one, going well beyond anything Trump has done or even promised to do.

I defy anyone to find a poll of Americans with numbers like that. Perhaps European leaders need to start trying to educate their nations' popular opinion, or alternatively start taking it more seriously.