Pew Global Attitudes Survey 2010
A full copy of this survey of seven Muslim countries can be seen here or downloaded from here.
These results are shocking. Most Muslims favour stoning to death for adultery, whipping or amputation for theft, and the death penalty for apostasy.
They are so shocking you might be inclined to look for excuses; stoning and amputation don’t happen that much, they are more a symbol of how crime is frowned upon. [You could also believe that if the threat of extremely harsh punishment is the only answer to wrong doing then that society has a problem.]
But death for apostasy! For your beliefs, your conscience. Well, that gets right to the heart of the problem with Islam.
And around a half (85% in Pakistan!) want gender segregation in the workplace. Can Muslims think only of nothing but procreation. How can you run a modern economy like that?
You might wonder too, what the results would have been if Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq had been included in the survey.
Islam’s Role in Political Life
Majorities of Muslims in three of the six predominantly Muslim countries surveyed, as well as in Nigeria, say that Islam plays a very or fairly large role in the political life of their countries.
| Role of Islam in Politics % who say role is: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Large | Small | DK |
| Indonesia | 89 | 10 | 1 |
| Nigeria | 88 | 11 | 1 |
| Turkey | 69 | 19 | 12 |
| Lebanon | 54 | 45 | 1 |
| Egypt | 48 | 49 | 3 |
| Pakistan | 46 | 36 | 18 |
| Jordan | 34 | 64 | 2 |
In Pakistan, a 46% plurality of Muslims say Islam plays a large role, while 36% say it plays a small role in Pakistani politics. Opinions are about evenly divided in Egypt, where 48% of Muslims say Islam plays a large role in their country’s political life and 49% say it plays only a small role.
Most Welcome Islam’s Influence
Muslims in Nigeria and in nearly all of the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed overwhelmingly welcome Islamic influence over their countries’ politics.
| Islam's Influence in Politics % who say it is: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Positive | Negative | NS |
| Indonesia | 91 | 6 | 3 |
| Egypt | 85 | 2 | 13 |
| Nigeria | 82 | 10 | 8 |
| Jordan | 76 | 14 | 10 |
| Pakistan | 69 | 6 | 22 |
| Lebanon | 58 | 32 | 10 |
| Turkey | 38 | 31 | 31 |
Only in Turkey are opinions about the role of Islam in political life more mixed. About four in ten (38%) Turkish Muslims say Islam plays a large role and embrace its influence in their country’s politics or say it is bad that Islam plays only a small role; about three-in-ten (31%) say Islam’s influence is negative.
Views of Gender Segregation
Muslim publics offer mixed views of gender segregation in the workplace. Pakistani Muslims are the most supportive: 85% say they would favor making segregation of men and women in the workplace the law in their country. A narrower majority (54%) of Muslims in Egypt also support making gender segregation the law in their country.
| Gender Segregation in the Workplace % who: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Favour | Oppose | NS |
| Pakistan | 85 | 11 | 4 |
| Egypt | 54 | 44 | 2 |
| Jordan | 50 | 44 | 6 |
| Nigeria | 49 | 48 | 3 |
| Indonesia | 38 | 59 | 3 |
| Turkey | 13 | 84 | 3 |
| Lebanon | 11 | 89 | - |
In Lebanon, Turkey and Indonesia, majorities of Muslims reject legalized gender segregation in the workplace. More than eight-in-ten in Lebanon (89%) and Turkey (84%) express this opinion, as do 59% of Muslims in Indonesia. In most of the countries where this question was asked, men and women express similar views of gender segregation in the workplace.
Support for Severe Laws
Majorities of Muslims in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Nigeria say they would favor making harsh punishments such as stoning people who commit adultery; whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery; and the death penalty for those who leave the Muslim religion the law in their country.
| Views of Harsh Punishments % who favour: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Stoning for Adultery | Whipping & Amputation | Death for Apostasy |
| Egypt | 82 | 77 | 84 |
| Pakistan | 82 | 82 | 76 |
| Jordan | 70 | 58 | 86 |
| Nigeria | 56 | 65 | 51 |
| Indonesia | 42 | 36 | 30 |
| Lebanon | 23 | 13 | 6 |
| Turkey | 16 | 13 | 5 |
For the most part, views of strict punishments do not vary consistently across demographic groups in seven countries where these questions were asked. One notable exception, however, is in Nigeria, where Muslim men express considerably more support than Muslim women for these types of punishments.
The original Pew table uses these headings
Stoning people who commit adultery
Whippings/cutting off of hands for theft and robbery
Death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion
Support for Democracy
In nearly all of the countries surveyed, support for harsh punishments such as stoning people who commit adultery, whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery and the death penalty for those who leave the Muslim religion coexists with support for democratic governance.
| Views of Democracy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Preferable | Not Always Preferable | Doesn't Matter for Me | DK |
| Lebanon | 81 | 12 | 5 | 2 |
| Turkey | 76 | 6 | 5 | 13 |
| Jordan | 69 | 17 | 10 | 4 |
| Nigeria | 66 | 18 | 16 | 1 |
| Indonesia | 65 | 12 | 19 | 4 |
| Egypt | 59 | 22 | 16 | 2 |
| Pakistan | 42 | 15 | 21 | 22 |
With the exception of Pakistan, majorities of Muslims in all of the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed and in Nigeria say that democracy is preferable to any other kind of government.
The original Pew table uses these headings
Democracy is preferable to any other kind of government
In some circumstances, a non-democratic government can be preferable
For someone like me, it doesn’t matter what kind of government we have
Survey Details
Sample design: Multi-stage cluster sample stratified proportional to population size and urban/rural population. Mode: Face-to-face adults 18 plus. Language: Main language of country. Fieldwork dates: April – May, 2010. Sample size: 1,000. Margin of error: ±4.0 percentage points. Representative: Adult population. With the following exceptions:
Indonesia: Sample design representative of roughly 88% of the population
Lebanon: Sample design excludes a small area in Beirut controlled by a militia group and a few villages in the south Lebanon, which border Israel and are inaccessible to outsiders.
Pakistan: Sample design excludes the FATA/FANA areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir for security reasons as well as areas of instability in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [formerly the North-West Frontier Province] and Baluchistan – roughly 16% of the population, with disproportional sampling of the urban population. Sample size: 2,000. Margin of error: ±3.0 percentage points.
The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project
The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project conducts public opinion surveys around the world on a broad array of subjects ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. More than 240,000 interviews in 57 countries have been conducted as part of the project’s work.
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does so by conducting public opinion polling and social science research; by analyzing news coverage; and by holding forums and briefings. It does not take positions on policy issues.
