Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Both the Quran and hadith make reference to witchcraft and the evil eye as well as to supernatural beings known in Arabic as jinn (the origin of the English word genie).22 To gauge how widespread belief in these supernatural forces is today, the survey asked Muslims separate questions about witchcraft, jinn and the evil eye […]
The vast majority of Muslims surveyed subscribe to the basic tenets of Islam – that there is only one God and that Muhammad is His Prophet. Acceptance of these central articles of the Islamic faith forms the foundation of a global ummah, or community of believers. But it does not necessarily follow that religion plays […]
Austerity, bailouts and increased outside scrutiny of national budgets have been, so far, the principal policy responses to the euro crisis. These efforts receive mixed grades from European publics. They are divided over the fiscal belt-tightening to date and most question the need for further spending cuts. Richer northern European nations are skeptical about aiding […]
The persistence and depth of the European economic downturn triggered by the euro crisis has had a profoundly adverse impact on most Europeans’ attitudes toward the condition of their national economies. People are almost universally dissatisfied with the state of their nations. Only the Germans are satisfied with the direction of their country and the […]
The euro crisis has led Europeans to become very judgmental about elements of the European project: economic integration, membership in the European Union, the EU as an institution, the European Central Bank and use of the euro as their currency. But, as yet, euro zone publics want to keep the euro. As economic conditions have […]
The euro crisis has hit the southern European nations surveyed (Greece, Italy and Spain) much harder than the northern (Britain, France and Germany) or eastern countries, (Poland and the Czech Republic). But it is Greece’s reputation, more than that of Italy and Spain, that has suffered the most in the eyes of the public. German […]
Overview Public interest in foreign news stories has been modest so far this year, in stark contrast to 2011 when several overseas news stories, from the Japanese tsunami and nuclear disaster to the “Arab spring,” attracted substantial attention. The latest weekly News Interest Index, conducted May 31 to June 2 among 1,012 adults, is fairly […]
In a conference call with journalists, the Pew Forum’s staff discussed the findings of “Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths,” the second report based on a comprehensive, nationwide survey of Asian Americans.
Respondents’ thoughts The wide range of variability in the tone of the answers to this question can be represented by the following two opposing statements, made by anonymous respondents who filed their answers at the same time on the same day: “The development of the Internet as a complex adaptive system will continue to evolve, […]
Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, publics in Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine share generally positive views of the United States and the European Union. Of the three nations, Lithuanians might be described as the most Westward leaning, with solid majorities looking favorably on the U.S., the EU and NATO. Ukrainians and Russians, […]