Madrid, Spain - The survey of 1,500 Muslim immigrants showed that almost three quarters were happy living in Spain and 83 percent said they had no difficulty in practising their religion here.
Four fifths of Muslim immigrants in Spain feel that they have adapted to life there but there is still a small radical wing that thinks violence is an acceptable way to defend their religion, a poll showed on Thursday.
According to the Spanish Islamic Commission, more than a million Muslims live in Spain.
The survey of 1,500 Muslim immigrants showed that almost three quarters were happy living in Spain and 83 percent said they had no difficulty in practising their religion here.
However, while 85 percent of people said it was perfectly possible to be a good Muslim and a good Spaniard and that violence was an "absolutely unacceptable" way of defending their religion, 4 percent disagreed.
"In any sector of society, in all countries, you always get 3 to 5 percent who are radicalised -- skinheads and others -- so this isn't scandalous at all," said Jose Juan Toharia of Metroscopia, the group which ran the survey.
More confidence in govt than Spaniards
The figure was lower than in Britain where a poll carried out by Populus earlier this year showed that 7 percent of Muslims there thought suicide attacks on civilians could be justified under certain circumstances.
That rose above 10 percent if the target was government buildings or workers, the police or the military.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the poll showed Muslims felt much the same as Spanish nationals about living in Spain.
In fact, Muslim immigrants had more confidence in the government than Spaniards, giving it 6.5 out of 10 in terms of trustworthiness compared to 5.3 percent from Spaniards.