Pew Survey: Importance of religion for Muslims and their religious practice
by Salman Hameed
Just a few months ago, I had a post about a Pew Survey that looked at how the Muslim world sees American science and technology as well as the drone warfare. Now there is another Pew report out that looks at the religious practices of Muslims worldwide. I will have a couple of posts highlighting various aspects of the report pertinent to our discussions here. In fact, just this past Friday we had talked about the importance of religion in the worldview of Egyptian science teachers. So let's start with the importance of religion for Muslims across the globe:
This is a striking plot. It highlights the need for sensitivity towards religion when dealing with issues at the intersection of science & religion in much of the Muslim world. By sensitivity I don't mean to play down the science - but rather to be cognizant of the important role that religion plays in everyday life. Biological evolution, for example, is accepted by many Muslims and rejected by others. From science communication perspective, it will be a loosing battle if evolution is presented as an idea inherently against religion.
How often do Muslims pray in different countries? This is a question that we had included in our own work on Muslim physicians and medical students and had found a large variation between countries - with Malaysia and Turkey on two extremes, and Pakistan in the middle. Here is the Pew survey that more or less gives us a similar trend.
I think Bangladesh is a surprise here - it is even lower than Turkey.
There is one other plot I wanted to share here. The survey also asked a question about the perceptions of religious orthodoxy. In particular, it asked about if "there is only one interpretation of Islam" or can it be interpreted in different ways. Not surprisingly, a majority of respondents in most countries agreed with the single interpretation statement, with Morocco, Tunisia, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Iraq being the exceptions, with under 50%. And here is a plot that shows that the opinion of Muslims in the US on this matter is different than the global Muslim community.
I will have more from this Pew survey tomorrow. In the mean time, you can access the full report here.
Just a few months ago, I had a post about a Pew Survey that looked at how the Muslim world sees American science and technology as well as the drone warfare. Now there is another Pew report out that looks at the religious practices of Muslims worldwide. I will have a couple of posts highlighting various aspects of the report pertinent to our discussions here. In fact, just this past Friday we had talked about the importance of religion in the worldview of Egyptian science teachers. So let's start with the importance of religion for Muslims across the globe:
This is a striking plot. It highlights the need for sensitivity towards religion when dealing with issues at the intersection of science & religion in much of the Muslim world. By sensitivity I don't mean to play down the science - but rather to be cognizant of the important role that religion plays in everyday life. Biological evolution, for example, is accepted by many Muslims and rejected by others. From science communication perspective, it will be a loosing battle if evolution is presented as an idea inherently against religion.
How often do Muslims pray in different countries? This is a question that we had included in our own work on Muslim physicians and medical students and had found a large variation between countries - with Malaysia and Turkey on two extremes, and Pakistan in the middle. Here is the Pew survey that more or less gives us a similar trend.
I think Bangladesh is a surprise here - it is even lower than Turkey.
There is one other plot I wanted to share here. The survey also asked a question about the perceptions of religious orthodoxy. In particular, it asked about if "there is only one interpretation of Islam" or can it be interpreted in different ways. Not surprisingly, a majority of respondents in most countries agreed with the single interpretation statement, with Morocco, Tunisia, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Iraq being the exceptions, with under 50%. And here is a plot that shows that the opinion of Muslims in the US on this matter is different than the global Muslim community.
I will have more from this Pew survey tomorrow. In the mean time, you can access the full report here.
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