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 A recent global survey suggests that Muslims are more religious than Christians and Hindus.
December 3rd, 2011
10:00 PM ET
Conflict, theology and history make Muslims more religious than others, experts sayBy Richard Allen Greene, CNN (CNN) - Every religion has its true believers and its doubters, its pious and its pragmatists, but new evidence suggests that Muslims tend to be more committed to their faith than other believers. Muslims are much more likely than Christians and Hindus to say that their own faith is the only true path to paradise, according to a recent global survey, and they are more inclined to say their religion is an important part of their daily lives. Muslims also have a much greater tendency to say their religion motivates them to do good works, said the survey, released over the summer by Ipsos-Mori, a British research company that polls around the world.
Islam is the world's second-largest religion - behind Christianity and ahead of Hinduism, the third largest. With some 1.5 billion followers and rising, Islam's influence may be growing even faster than its numbers as the Arab Spring topples long-reigning secular rulers and opens the way to religiously inspired political parties. The case against TLC’s “All-American Muslim” But while there's no doubt about the importance of Islam, experts have different theories about why Muslims appear to be more religious than members of other global faiths - and contrasting views on whether to fear the depth of Muslims' commitment to their faith. One explanation lies in current affairs, says Azyumardi Azra, an expert on Islam in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim majority country. Many Muslims increasingly define themselves in contrast with what they see as the Christian West, says Azra, the director of the graduate school at the State Islamic University in Jakarta. "When they confront the West that they perceive or misperceive as morally in decline, many Muslims feel that Islam is the best way of life. Islam for them is the only salvation," he says. The case for TLC’s “All-American Muslim” That feeling has become stronger since the September 11 attacks, as many Muslims believe there is a "growing conflict between Islam and the so-called West," he says. "Unfortunately this growing attachment to Islam among Muslims in general has been used and abused by literal-minded Muslims and the jihadists for their own purposes," he says. But other experts say that deep religious commitment doesn't necessarily lead to violence. "Being more religious doesn't necessarily mean that they will become suicide bombers," says Ed Husain, a former radical Islamist who is now a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. In fact, Husain argues that religious upbringing "could be an antidote" to radicalism. American Muslim women who cover explain their choice The people most likely to become Islamist radicals, he says, are those who were raised without a religious education and came to Islam later, as "born-agains." Muslims raised with a grounding in their religion are better able to resist the distortions of Islam peddled by recruiters to radical causes, some experts like Husain argue, making them less likely to turn to violence. But he agrees that Muslims are strongly attached to their faith, and says the reason lies in the religion itself. "Muslims have this mindset that we alone possess the final truth," Husain says. Muslims believe "Jews and Christians went before us and Mohammed was the last prophet," says Husain, whose book "The Islamist" chronicles his experiences with radicals. "Our prophet aimed to nullify the message of the previous prophets." The depth of the Muslim commitment to Islam is not only a matter of theology and current events, but of education and history, as well, other experts say. "Where religion is linked into the state institutions, where religion is deeply ingrained from childhood, you are getting this feeling that 'My way is the only way,'" says Fiyaz Mughal, the director of Faith Matters, a conflict-resolution organization in London. The Ipsos-Mori survey results included two countries with a strong link between religion and the state: Legally Muslim Saudi Arabia, which calls itself the guardian of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina; and Indonesia, home of the world's largest Muslim population. The third majority Muslim country in the study is Turkey, which has a very different relationship with religion. It was founded after World War I as a legally secular country. But despite generations of trying to separate mosque and state, Turkey is now governed by an Islam-inspired party, the AKP. Turkey's experience shows how difficult it can be to untangle government and religion in Muslim majority countries and helps explain the Muslim commitment to their religion, says Azyumardi Azra, the Indonesia expert. He notes that there has been no "Enlightenment" in Islam as there was in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, weakening the link between church and state in many Christian countries. "Muslim communities have never experienced intense secularization that took place in Europe and the West in general," says Azra. "So Islam is still adhered to very strongly." But it's not only the link between mosque and state in many Muslim majority countries that ties followers to their faith, says professor Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani diplomat who has written a book about Islam around the world. Like Christians who wear "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets, many Muslims feel a deep personal connection to the founder of their faith, the prophet Muhammad, he says. Muhammad isn't simply a historical figure to them, but rather a personal inspiration to hundreds of millions of people around the world today. "When a Muslim is fasting or is asked to give charity or behave in a certain way, he is constantly reminded of the example set by the prophet many centuries ago," argues Ahmed, the author of "Journey Into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization." His book is based on interviews with Muslims around the world, and one thing he found wherever he traveled was admiration for Muhammad. "One of the questions was, 'Who is your role model?' From Morocco to Indonesia, it was the prophet, the prophet, the prophet," says Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington. But while Ahmed sees similar patterns across the Islamic world, Ed Husain, the former radical, said it was important to understand its diversity, as well. "There is no monolithic religiosity - Muslims in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are following different versions of Islam," says Husain. "All we're seeing (in the survey) is an adherence to a faith." Political scientist Farid Senzai, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington, raised questions about the survey's findings. "Look at the countries that are surveyed - Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Turkey," he says. "There are about 300 million Muslims in those three countries, (who make up) about 20% of Muslims globally." Islam is "incredibly important" in Saudi Arabia, he says. "But in Tunisia or Morocco you could have had a different result. It would have been nice if they had picked a few more Arab countries and had a bit more diversity," says Senzai. The pollster, Ipsos-Mori, does monthly surveys in 24 countries, three of which are majority Muslim – Turkey, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The other countries range from India to the United States, and Mexico to South Korea, and are the same each month, regardless of the subject the pollsters are investigating. In the survey released in July, about six in 10 Muslims in the survey said their religion was the only way to salvation, while only a quarter of Hindus and two out of 10 Christians made that claim about their own faiths. More than nine out of 10 Muslims said their faith was important in their lives, while the figure was 86% for Hindus and 66% for Christians. Ipsos-Mori surveyed 18,473 adults via an online panel in April and released the findings in July. Results were weighted to make the results as representative as possible, but the pollster cautioned that because the survey was conducted online, it was harder to get representative results in poorer countries where internet access is not widespread. CNN polling director Keating Holland also warns that in an "opt-in" survey, where respondents actively choose to participate, results tend to come from "people who are confident in their opinions and express them openly... not good for intensely private matters like faith or income or sex." Online surveys in countries that are not entirely free are also open to the possibility that pollsters get "the approved response" in those nations, "where the people who are most likely to be willing to talk about such matters are the ones who hold, or at least verbalize, opinions that won't get them in trouble if they are expressed," Holland says. That may have been an issue in Saudi Arabia, where respondents were given the choice of not answering questions on religion due to their potential sensitivity in the kingdom. The Saudi sample was the smallest, with 354 participants, meaning "findings for Saudi Arabia must be treated with caution," Ipsos-Mori said. About 1,000 people participated in most countries, but sample sizes were smaller in the three majority Muslim countries and in eight other countries. The survey participants did not reflect the true percentage of Christians and Muslims in the world. Christians were over-represented – as were people who said they had no religion – and Muslims were under-represented. Nearly half the respondents identified themselves as Christian. Eleven percent were Muslim, 4% were Buddhist, 3% were Hindu and 3% were "other." A quarter said they had no religion and 6% refused to say. Fiyaz Mughal, the interfaith expert, argues that even though the countries surveyed might not be representative of the entire Muslim world, the findings about Muslims rang broadly true. Muslims in different countries were committed to their faith for different reasons, he says. "Saudi Arabia is an institutionally religious state. Indonesia has religion tied into its culture," says Mughal. But Muslim immigrants to Europe also show strong ties to their religion, either as a defense mechanism in the face of a perceived threat, or because of an effort to cling to identity, he contends. He detects a link between insular communities and commitment to faith regardless of what religion is involved. It is prevalent in Muslim Saudi Arabia, but he has seen it among Israeli Jews as well, he says. "The Israeli Jewish perspective is that (the dispute with the Palestinians) is a conflict of land and religion which are integrally linked," Mughal says. "What does play a role in that scenario is a sense of isolationism and seclusion in Israeli Jewish religious communities, a growing trend to say, 'Our way is the only way,'" he says. Religious leaders of all faiths need to combat those kinds of attitudes because of the greater diversity people encounter in the world today, he argues. They have a responsibility to teach their congregations "that if they are following a religion, it is not as brutal or exclusive as possible," Mughal says. "Things are changing. The world is a different place from what it was even 20 years ago." Politicians, too, "need to take these issues quite seriously," he says. "In the Middle East there are countries - the Saudi Arabias - where you need to be saying that diversity, while it may not be a part of the country, is something they have to deal with when moving in a globalized area," he says. But Senzai, the political scientist, says that it's also important for the West to take the Muslim world on its own terms. "Many Muslims want religion to play a role in politics," he says. "To assume that everyone around the world wants to be like the West - that they want liberal secular democracy - is an absurd idea." - CNN's Nima Elbagir and Atika Shubert contributed to this report. soundoff (5,459 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Have you ever read the Quran? How many different ways have they threatened to kill unbelievers? More ways that can be counted. It's basically believe or die.
Actually your very far off in the Quran the part where it mentions murder is "Kill those who kill you" as in a War!! I am going to go on a limb and say that you never read the part in the Quran that says" if you kill one human being its like killing all of humanity"!!!! But you only read what the media gives out!!
Allah was Muhammad's village's pagan Arabian moon god.
You do realize that allah is just the Arabic word for god. Even christians in arab countries use the word allah.
So why do you have crescent moon on your flags ?
Why do you represent Christianity with a Roman torture/execution device? Why does Judaism use a six-pointed star? Why do you ask silly questions?
Bull!!!!
Pray harder :p
The main reason Christians are "less religious" than Muslims has its roots in the Renaissance. The Muslim world has never had a movement where rising secular scientific and philosophical ideas fundamentally undercut civic religious authority. The process has many complex echoes and corollaries down to the modern age, but that really is the starting point. Islam is still in the Middle Ages.
You do know Renaissance has its roots in Islam funny isn't it. This video proves it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1PxJomypQE
@Mattm: Im seeing some serious problems with the article to begin with, eg, they dont define religion at the start. What is religion?
Very well said MattmChugh !! Nailed it !!
Actually, Islam originally was a great proponent of the sciences; Algebra and alchemy are in fact Arabic words rooted in Islam. Sadly, what happened was Christianity felt threatened by this offshoot of Abrahamic belief because it was, initially, very accepting not only of other beliefs but also of secular teachings, both of which were undercutting the Holy Church's influence. The crusades, both in the Middle East and in Spain, were efforts by the Church to not only confront this rather liberal religion but to destroy it and Judaism, all in an effort to maintain superiority over all things secular and religious.
The Church was nearly successful, but the more paranoid elements of Islam had seen this coming and head for the hills, allowing the moderate Muslims to be slaughtered by crusaders and the Inquisition. What was left of Islam was the manic, paranoid, and very much radical elements who flourished and grew into what it is today. Much of Islam today is attempting to become moderate again, but those are not the ones making the news.
@Really, hey you seem to have a hard-on for this religion heh
@well:Belief that there is no God, is as much belief without evidence as belief in God. I would assume, then that you are an Agnostic rather than one of these silly evangelical atheists. Well said well!
@Bella There is no such law about marrying young girls in Quran. What people refer to Muhammad's marraige to Aisha comes from a historical record which has a lot of errors in it. If you take that you any historian he will give ages of Aisha from 6-16-18 .
Yeah, yeah, don't try to cover for your pedophile mohammed, you know he wanted some young pipi
"Really" then why is it that in Saudi Arabia the legal age for a girl to get married is 9 years old? I'll tel you why .....because Mohamed did it ...so if Mohamed did it then it's acceptable..??????...If mohamed was alive today and married a 9year old girl he would be THROWN in jail for pedophelia . You muslims are such BLIND followers
Look how Jews are treated in the Middle East. Then look how Muslims are treated in the West. Big difference huh? Muslims have no respect for others.
Common on Jews are treated worse. They have been living there for centuries now you make an illegal state and expected roses from them.
Muslims imposed their faith and created multiple islamic states for hundreds of years. Muslim armies ruthlessly slaughtered and forcibly convereted people in North Africa, the Balkans, India. So don't make a big fuss about the only democracy in the Mid East, where even Israeli Arabs have more rights than most Arabs.
I believe that Muslims slaughtered people for centuries, forcibly converting Egyptians, Berbers, Persians and many other groups. No matter how much you throw false accusations at the US military, in the end Arab dictators have killed far more Muslims than anyone else. So stop blaming everyone else and look in the mirror. Muslims are overly extreme and I think that may have something to do with the problems in the Middle East today.
@Really, mohammed and I were having beer and smoking smoking some weed the other days and he says Muslim are full of s-t
@Argue dis: Nah, im not seeing it. I mean i see the right-wing Christian political thing u r talking about, but im not seeing muslim involvement in domestic issues, only the israel issue.
@ashrakay Where is the evidence there is no God. Do you have any ? If you would say I am not sure about if there is a God or not well then you should be searching for the answer shouldn't you.
The burden of proof lies at the feet of people who make the claim. Where is your proof that Zeus does not exist? Where is your proof that a magic bunny that farts rainbows doesn't exist? See how this works?
@ashrakay Well you are also making a claim that there is no God.
Ashrakay, the burden of proof argument is false and non-scientific. By any logical measure, the person making the claim that is rejected by the majority of people (that there is no God) would have the burden of proof. It is just that most religious people aren't schooled in logic enough to smack you silly assertion down.
@well, so you're saying that Zeus may actually exist because you don't have proof to the contrary that he doesn't exist? I just want to get that on the record.
No, just that the "burden of proof" and "extraordinary claims" arguments are unsupported by logic or the scientific method. They are a way of discounting anothers argument without addressing it. The claim that there is no God or Gods, is the extraordinary claim, because it is rejected by the majority of humans in this world. Therefore the idea of "burden of proof" is on you. I don't think that is really hard ot understand.
@ashrakay
If the majority of people believed in Zeus, and I made the claim that Zeus does not exist, then I would have to demonstrate it. This is just common sense.
Holy Cow! ...so essentially what you're saying is that since the majority of the people smoked cigarettes in 1945, that it used to be good for you back then?
Islam is not a religion. It's a dangerous perversion.
That is the very definition of any religion: A perversion of reality.
islam is the only "religion" that promotes killing of unbelievers !
Dean:
2 Chronicles 15:12-13
And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul, but that whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.
Deuteronomy 7:3-4
You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
Leviticus 24:16
Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.
Exodus 22:18
Exodus 22:20
Exodus 31:14-15
Exodus 32:27-29
Exodus 35:2-3
Numbers 1:51
Numbers 15:32-36
Deuteronomy 14:6-10
Deuteronomy 17:2-5
And so on...
You really need to read your Bible a bit more before claiming Islam is alone in advocating the death of non-believers.
They're ALL a buch of nutcases
Any religion could look the same if they would adopt the believe it or die mentality like the muslims
how come you DON'T defend palestinians who are invaded for **
Um, I'll side with the guy who died and 3 days later came back to life, thank you.
I love watching people so vehemently defend their fairy tale of choice.
Fairies have 6 wings, not 4.
Ephesians 4:18
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Not too late, my friends... Peace
Hmm...nope, never met a dead man who came back, especially after 3 days (they tend to get a bit ripe at that point), and certainly not going to believe one mentioned in a rather old book with no other corroborating evidence.
Still time to join reality...
I find it ironic that there's a race to see who is more religious than who. It's like residents of an asylum proclaiming they are crazier than any other resident. Belief without evidence is dangerous. Denial in the face of reality, is lunacy.
Belief that there is no God, is as much belief without evidence as belief in God. I would assume, then that you are an Agnostic rather than one of these silly evangelical atheists.
Whether you believe in God or not you will face Him on judgment day.
I would believe in god, if there were verifiable evidence to support that belief. Religious people give labels like "athiests" or "agnostic". I tend to see myself as a sane realist.
@George, if you're right and that day comes, then god has a lot to answer to me for. His disregard of mankind and innocence when passing judgement and killing is shameful. His inflated ego and his jealousy are beneath me. His commandments to kill children, even in the case of just seeing if Abraham would obey him, is childish and disgraceful to me. So, judgement day... bring it on. I'm ready to sit in judgement of this so called god.
Ashrakay, labels aren't given. Words simply have meanings. Anyone who stands on the hill top (metaphorically) and yells that there is no God, or conversely that his specific God is great seem equally silly to me.
@well, I think it's equally silly to stand on a hill and shout "there are no leprechauns", yet sadly we live in world where people believe in these fantasies and as a consequence, retard the growth and development of the human race. So, rather than sitting back and pretending like everything is cool with that, I'll shout.
God is God, and he doesn't have to answer for anything. If you think so, you are deluding yourself. If you are facing a tornado, you don't yell into the wind why are you doing this. You take what's coming. So it is with God. He is stronger than anything you can imagine in nature. And he will be the one doing the judging. Do you really want to risk an eternity of hellfire?
@ashrakay It so is you believe in nothingness you believe as long as you can get away with stuff its good. you believe as long as there is society that is acceptable to you its ok. Your religion is against every religion and you devote a lot of your time to it too.
That really doesn't make sense. First of all, I believe in things supported by evidence. So saying that I believe in Nothingness is incorrect. 2nd, I'm not against religion. I'm against the ignorance that flourishes in its environment and the harm that it brings to the human race, the earth itself and the other living species on the planet.
Look "Really" ovbiously this is a very touchy subject. And Jesus I remind you was crucified for your sins just as much as any body elses. BUT we have a choice to accept him for what he has done for us or to reject him. AND may I remind you physically Jesus was tortured by the Romans prompted by the religious leaders of the day. All I am saying is that if someone id born in a muslim country or family that child MUST become a muslim NO if and or but's.....I am a christian and I would never FORCE my kids to be christians (I would WANT them to be) but I would NEVER force them...I would love accept and pray for them no matter what they chose just like how Jesus accepted me
Hey Mahmoud....just to let you know I KNOW a great deal about Islam not just from the headlines!
Islam bottom line is a DEMONIC religion ...sorry there is NO other nice way to say it .
Unlike Christianity where we have a choice to either accept or reject Christ.
If a Musim converts to any other religion they do so under the VERY REAL THREAT of being killed.
A muslim has NO freedom of choice they either MUST be a muslim or face the concequenses....what a sham of a religion ....certainly NOT a so called religion of PEACE. BTW Mohamed himself was a murdered a blasphemer adulterer and a pedophile(married a 9year old girl) ...Mahmoud this is the TRUTH about your religion!!!!
Wow peace how is worshipping a picture of a man that is being crucified peaceful. Then all in all your book is a compilation made up of stories by people in power to control more people. The true Christians were killed back then and the books were burned that was against the people in power and a new religion was made out of it.
The simple fact that you refer to Islam a demonic religion shows how much you know about it
AND I BELIEVE YOU ARE KKK TOO, BELLA? YOU RACIST FUC K
@Pablo: No child brides b 4 islam? Not so sure. Mohammed's people were pagans, i think all that stuff was already going on, Mohammed prob just codified it. He may have even improved their rights (anybody here know how women/children were treated by 7th century arab pagans? Prob not too well is my guess.
Btw, im a christian, islam is not the way to find God, but im not a muslim-hater.
heres the thing ...if Mohamed was a REAL prophet of god and if there were people marrying young girls (a child) ...shouldn't Mohamed STOPPED such a thing from continuing ...BUT no, he went ahead an committed the crime of marrying a child. His young bride even told mohamed , amazing how allah always gives mohamed what he wants...because mohamed did whatever he wanted and cared not about others ....He was NOT a real prophet just a SELF proclaimed prophet
Not as evolved.