[Please read Journey into Islam first]

Between 2008 and 2012 the Pew Research Center conducted 38,000 face-to-face interviews in over eighty languages of Muslims in thirty-nine countries spread out over Africa, Asia and eastern Europe. It is the most extensive and up to date survey of its kind and comparable only to one other survey – one conducted by the Gallup organization (which is a little more dated, has a larger sample set, from fewer countries).

After studying the 226 page report (see report HERE), I’d like to share with you what I think are the most important take-aways.

1. The survey isn’t without its flaws
   1. Key populations of Muslims were left out of the survey. Surveys were not conducted in Algeria, China, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen due to a concerns regarding political sensitivities or security. This is a major issue since many of these countries represent some of the largest, most influential, and conservative populations of Muslims in the world. Without these people being represented the picture provided by the survey is incomplete and almost certainly skews the data towards the left or center (away from religious conservatism or fundamentalism). It is perhaps worth considering why each of these particular countries were considered too politically sensitive or unsafe to conduct the survey.
   2. Some terms need to be more clearly defined. For example, the survey indicates that a strong majority (roughly 80% of Muslims surveyed) believe that belief in God is necessary to be a moral person. What do those interviewed mean by “moral?” All religions and cultures have different understandings of this concept. What do they mean by “God” – not all gods embody the same moral ideals. Note: survey questions 84a- 84c and 92b indicate that there is a great diversity of opinions on the morality of divorce, polygamy, birth control and killing those who leave the Muslim religion, while questions 84d-84j indicate that there is strong acceptance among the Muslims surveyed that drinking alcohol, euthanasia, suicide, abortion, prostitution, fornication, and homosexual behavior are morally wrong.
   3. In the body of the report, some categories of response are so unclear that they are effectively meaningless. For example, in investigating whether the Muslims surveyed believe that suicide bombing in defense of Islam are justified, Pew only gave two categories for answers – either “rarely/never justified” or “often/sometimes justified.”   This is unfortunate since there is a significant difference in this instance between “rarely” and “never.” The data is further muddled by the fact that the difference between “sometimes” and “rarely” is not very clear. It would be little comfort to non-Muslims if the overwhelming majority of the Muslims surveyed say that suicide bombing in defense of Islam is “rarely” justified. However, if that same majority actually meant it is “never” justified, that could be encouraging. This lack of clarity makes questions like this meaningless at best and misleading at worst. Note: The responses of “Rarely,” “Never,” “Often,” and “Sometimes” are reported separately in the appendixes, if someone bothers to look. The distinction between “sometimes” and “rarely” is still unclear even there.
2. There is a diversity of beliefs, practices, and opinions on every subject in the Muslim world.
   1. There is no universal definition of what Muslims believe. This is probably the most important take-away from this survey. There is a range of beliefs and perspectives expressed for every question asked. This is an important point to keep in mind anytime someone attempts to speak for all Muslims or describe all Muslims in an all- encompassing way.
   2. In many cases beliefs, practices, and opinions among Muslims vary greatly based on their country and region of origin. In general, Muslims from Southeastern Europe tend to be far more moderate than Muslims from other regions.
   3. There is a surprising percentage of Muslims who say they do not know “a great deal” about Islam but say they know “some” or “not very much.” With the exception of those surveyed from Sub-Sahara Africa, those who claimed they only knew “some” or “not very much” about Islam and its practices often represented around half or more of those surveyed in a given country. This should probably not be all that surprising since many in the West who are more familiar with Christianity know that a significant percentage of professing Christians don’t actually know all that much about Christian beliefs or practices. It is also interesting to note that generally a quarter or more of the Muslims surveyed indicated that they are concerned about Muslim extremist groups (Q86, pg 215).
3. There are some causes for concern
   1. Honor killings of someone in your family are seen as justified at least in some situations by a significant minority, and in some countries a majority, of those surveyed. (See Question 53 & 54, pg 190).
   2. A majority or a strong minority of respondents from the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Sahara Africa believe that a woman does not have the right to decide whether to wear a veil or not (See Question 58, pg 192-193). This is clearly not a belief that all Muslims share, but it does speak to the rights and value of women among Muslims in these locations. Also see Question 78 on pg 200 where it is indicated that a majority of Muslims completely or mostly agree that a wife should always obey her husband.
   3. With the exception of respondents from a handful of countries, the Muslims surveyed favor making Sharia or Islamic law the official law of their country (Q79, pg 201). I need to study Sharia law or Islamic law more, but being pages away from finishing reading the Qu’ran, this is of great concern to me. At the moment this appears to me to be a brutal theocratic system of government that involves mutilating people, beheadings, and the divinely sanctioned abuse of women. The somewhat good news on this issue is that a significant percentage of the respondents only support Sharia being applied to Muslims (Q81, pg202).
   4. A concerning percentage of survey respondents from Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Sahara Africa indicated that they support the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion, punishments for crimes like theft and robbery that included whippings and cutting off of hands, and stoning people who commit adultery, (Q92d-d, pg 219-221).