GENEVA, Nov 28: A majority of Swiss people would support a Muslim woman's right to wear a headscarf at her workplace, according to an opinion poll on the integration of Islam in Switzerland published on Sunday.

Fifty-three per cent of those polled said they felt a recent move by a supermarket chain to expressly allow women in public sales jobs to wear headscarves was right, against 36 per cent who opposed the idea, the newspaper Sonntagsblick said.

The opinion poll indicated that the French-speaking Swiss were more reticent about allowing headscarves in the workplace compared to the Germanic and Italian language communities in Switzerland, the newspaper said.

A huge majority nation wide, 76 per cent, did not feel the 300,000 Muslims living in Switzerland were a threat, while 16 per cent disagreed, the poll found. About 57 per cent supported Muslims who wanted their children to be dispensed from standard religious education at school and to be taught Islamic teachings instead, although 31 per cent were more reticent about the idea.

"The findings show that the Swiss people are very tolerant about the integration of minorities," Farhad Afshar, head of a coordination body for Islamic organisations in Switzerland, told the newspaper.

Two-thirds of those polled favoured criminal proceedings against Muslims who advocated stoning - although 26 per cent disagreed - and 78 per cent supported offering courses to Muslim women so that they were aware of their rights.

The Swiss appeared sharply divided over granting an official place to Islam alongside the officially-recognised Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. Forty-six per cent favoured the idea while 43 per cent opposed it.

The opinion poll came amid debate in European countries about the integration of the Muslim community in society, including a recent ban on wearing religious symbols in French schools, and the role of imams. The poll carried out by the Isopublic survey company surveyed 1,101 people aged between 15 and 74 by telephone throughout Switzerland. -AFP