Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Muslim and Western publics continue to largely agree that relations between them are poor, and disagree about who is at fault – Muslims largely blame Westerners, while those in the West generally blame Muslims. However, in both Western and predominantly Muslim nations, there is a shared concern about the threat posed by Islamic extremism.
Restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose in 23 of the world’s 198 countries (12%), decreased in 12 countries (6%) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82%) between mid-2006 and mid-2009, a new Pew Forum report shows. More than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third of the world’s population – live in the 23 countries with increasing government restrictions or social hostilities involving religion.
In December 2009, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life published its first report analyzing the extent to which governments and societies around the world impinge on religious beliefs and practices. The report found that about 70% of the world’s population was living in countries where governments imposed high restrictions on religion […]
There is strong consensus among the global evangelical leaders on methods and strategies for evangelization. Eight-in-ten (80%) think the focus of evangelization efforts should be on changing individual hearts, not social institutions. There is also widespread agreement that evangelizing people who are not religious should be a top priority. A. Frequency of Sharing Faith About […]
Who are evangelical Christians? What do they believe? And what do they see as the boundaries of their faith? The survey contains several questions that probe how participants in the Third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization identify themselves religiously, in what faith they were raised and what spiritual experiences they have had. It finds broad […]
Countries with very high social hostilities have severe levels of violence and intimidation on many or all of the 13 measures that make up the Social Hostilities Index. In Iraq, for example, ongoing sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims frequently led to terrorist acts, including attacks on important religious sites in the country. For instance, more […]
The Lausanne leaders consider evangelicalism to be at odds with secularism and some other aspects of modern life. Majorities living in both the Global North and the Global South see a natural conflict between being an evangelical and living in modern society. Furthermore, there is widespread agreement among the evangelical leaders that secularism, materialism, and […]
Washington,D.C. — In a new surveyby the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, most evangelicalProtestant leaders who live in the Global South (58%) say that evangelicalChristians are gaining influence on life in their countries. By contrast, most leaders who live in the Global North (66%)say that, in the societies in which they […]
Relations between evangelicals and other religious groups do not appear to be a major concern to most evangelical leaders surveyed. A majority report that conflict between religious groups is either a small problem or not a problem in their country. The Lausanne leaders also report positive relations with a range of Christian groups, including Catholics, […]
The Social Hostilities Index (SHI) measures hostile acts by private individuals, organizations and social groups that restrict religious beliefs and practices. The 10-point index is based on 13 questions used by the Pew Forum to gauge the level of hostilities both between and within religious groups, including mob or sectarian violence, crimes motivated by religious […]