Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Buddhism, Islam and Religious Pluralism in South and Southeast Asia
Religion and national identity tied together in Buddhist-majority countries
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- Buddhism, Islam and Religious Pluralism in South and Southeast Asia
- Countries included in this survey
- Religion-state integrationists more likely to see threat in minority religious population growth
- Religion-state integrationists less willing to accept Christian neighbors
- Religion-state integrationists more likely than others to support religious leaders being politicians
- Those who strongly link their nation and religion are more likely to be religious
- Cambodia’s Buddhists nearly all support basing the law on Buddhist dharma
- Majority of Singapore’s unaffiliated who believe in God, unseen beings also think karma exists
- Majority of Singapore’s religious ‘nones’ say they believe in God or unseen beings
- Increasing shares of Singaporean adults identify as Christian or religiously unaffiliated
- 15% of Singaporean adults have disaffiliated from a religion since childhood
- Many adults in Singapore are shedding Buddhist, Chinese traditional religious identities
- More education not universally tied to less religious observance
- Younger Buddhists more accepting of religious conversion from Buddhism
- Younger adults slightly more likely than their elders to believe in spirits
- 9 in 10 households in Sri Lanka and Thailand perform rituals on death anniversaries
- Religious funeral practices especially common in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand
- Sri Lankans often pray or offer their respects to figures from other religions
- Majorities across all surveyed countries believe in God or unseen beings
- Most people in the countries surveyed identify as Buddhist or Muslim
- In most countries, high consistency between childhood and current religion
- Muslims more likely than others to say conversion away from their faith is unacceptable
- Singaporeans most likely to view various religions as compatible with their society
- Few express negative sentiments about diversity in their country
- Most Malaysian Muslims say religious leaders should be politicians as well as talk about their politics
- Most Indonesian and Malaysian Muslims describe Islam as more than a religion
- Cambodian Buddhists express comparatively high levels of support for engagement by religious leaders in politics
- Cambodian Buddhists overwhelmingly favor basing national law on dharma
- Many Thai Buddhists see Buddhism as an ethnicity
- Religion and national identity tied together in Buddhist-majority countries