A sweeping, 226-page report from the Pew Forum explores attitudes and opinions from Muslim communities around the world. In the process, it turns up some fascinating insights into not just the views held in the "Muslim world" but the wide diversity of those views between Muslim communities. Here, we explore some of those insights using maps and charts.
First, some caveats. The findings here do not represent all Muslims; just as they show diversity of opinion between communities, so, too, is there diversity within communities. After all, a poll of all American Christians would not capture the differences between Baptists and Catholics, much less between New Jersey Catholics and Louisiana Catholics. There is, in other words, no such thing as a monolithic Muslim worldview.
Also, Pew unfortunately did not survey the world's third-largest Muslim population, which is that of India, and does not include Muslims from Iran, China or Saudi Arabia, much less those who now live in the Western world. But it does offer a wide, comprehensive view of many of the world's largest Muslim communities and their opinions.
Now the data.
1. Most want to implement sharia, disagree about what that means
Majorities of Muslims in wide swaths of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa say they support making sharia the official law of their country. Support is highest in Afghanistan, where 99 percent of respondents support sharia, followed by the Palestinian territories, Malaysia, Niger and Pakistan.
Support is lowest in Central Asia and Europe, where only minorities support sharia. In Turkey, where an Islamist political party has been in power for several years and has implemented some Islam-influenced conservative legislation, only 12 percent say they support sharia.
Pew points out that "sharia law" is not exactly clear, and people who say they support it often disagree on what it means. There is a wide divergence of opinion among people who support sharia, for example, on whether or not corporal punishment for thievery is acceptable, or on social issues such as divorce. In other words, Muslim communities seem to favor the idea of sharia law far more than any specific laws.
2. Most Muslims prefer democracy
Wide majorities of Muslims in most countries say they prefer democracy over a "strong leader," which is Pew's standard question for determining support for democracy. Support is particularly high in Africa and Southeast Asia. It's more mixed in the Middle East, with opinion varying between countries but generally leaning pro-democracy. Support is weakest in post-Soviet countries, as well as in Pakistan.
What's interesting here is that, in general and with some significant exceptions, people seem to get the kind of government they want. Demand for democracy is high in Egypt and Tunisia, where protesters led peaceful revolutions in 2011, but it's lower in Jordan, a monarchy, and in countries with authoritarian-leaning governments such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.
If there is any causal truth to this trend -- in other words, if people are more likely to get the kind of government they want -- then Pakistan's unusually high support for a "strong leader" does not bode well for its troubled democracy.
3. Few support suicide bombings, with exceptions
Unsurprisingly, most Muslims say that suicide bombings in defense of Islam are never justified; majorities in every Muslim community surveyed reject the tactic. The only exception is the Palestinian Territories, where only 49 percent say they're never justified.
There are many countries in which less than 10 percent of Muslims say suicide bombings can be defensible, particularly in Europe and Central Asia.
There are two countries where more than a third say suicide bombings are sometimes justified: the Palestinian Territories, at an alarmingly high 40 percent, and Afghanistan at 39 percent. Suicide bombings have not been common in Israel-Palestine since the Second Intifada, which ended almost a decade ago. But they are still common in Afghanistan.
I was surprised to see that there does not appear to be a clear, consistent correlation between countries where suicide bombings are prevalent and countries where Muslims condemn or accept them. Suicide bombings are far less likely to be supported in Pakistan than they are in Afghanistan, for example, though they occur in both. And the bombings are widely condemned in Iraq, where they've been causing havoc for years, but receive 29 percent support in Egypt, where they are very rare.
By Max Fisher
sourche: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/02/what-the-muslim-world-believes-on-everything-from-alcohol-to-honor-killings-in-8-maps-and-4-charts/?tid=pm_world_pop
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