Washington: Large majorities in the Muslim world want the Islamic legal and moral code of Shariah as the official law in their countries, but they disagree on what it includes and who should be subject to it, an extensive new survey says.
Over three-quarters of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia want Shariah courts to decide family law issues such as divorce and property disputes, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said yesterday.
Views on punishments such as chopping off thieves’ hands or decreeing death for apostates is more evenly divided in much of the Islamic world, although more than three-quarters of Muslims in South Asia say they are justified.
“Muslims are not equally comfortable with all aspects of Shariah,” said the study by the Washington-based Pew Forum. “Most do not believe it should be applied to non-Muslims.”
More than four-fifths of the 38,000 Muslims interviewed in 39 countries said non-Muslims in their countries could practice their faith freely and that this was good.
This view was strongest in South Asia, where 97 percent of Bangladeshis and 96 percent of Pakistanis agreed, while the lowest Middle Eastern result was 77 percent in Egypt.
The survey polled only Muslims and not minorities. In several Muslim countries, embattled Christian minorities say they cannot practise their faith freely and are in fact subject to discrimination and physical attacks.
The survey produced mixed results on questions relating to the relationship between politics and Islam.
Democracy wins slight majorities in key Middle Eastern states — 54 percent in Iraq, 55 percent in Egypt — and falls to 29 percent in Pakistan. By contrast, it stands at 81 percent in Lebanon, 75 percent in Tunisia and 70 percent in Bangladesh.
Reuters
