Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
With more and more partisans choosing up sides on the issue, the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to fuel economic coverage last week. Mitt Romney took front and center in the 2012 presidential campaign, and the unraveling of an Iranian plot on U.S. soil raised more questions than answers.
The multiple attacks that struck Norway echoed throughout social media last week. This special edition of PEJ’s New Media Index is an in-depth look at the complex conversation on blogs, where the ideological views of the assailant, Anders Behring Breivik, became a significant point of discussion.
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 […]
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.
There were no late summer news doldrums last week as the apparent conclusion of a civil war and a pair of natural disasters topped the news. The rebel takeover of Libya generated the biggest week of attention to that conflict in five months while an earthquake and a hurricane brought the media focus back to the Northeast United States.
Opinions of Iran remain largely unfavorable across much of the world, and in some predominantly Muslim countries, higher numbers express negative views of the Islamic Republic this year than in previous years. Majorities or pluralities in 17 of 23 countries express an unfavorable opinion of Iran, including most of those surveyed in Egypt, Jordan, and […]
Concerns about Islamic extremism have declined in Pakistan in recent years, but most Pakistanis continue to see it as a problem facing their nation. Moreover, many worry that extremists could take control of their country, and pluralities see al Qaeda and the Taliban as serious threats. The violence associated with Islamic extremism is the primary […]
Muslims and Westerners offer mixed views of each other. Majorities in Britain, France, Russia and the U.S. express favorable views of Muslims, but opinions are divided in Germany and negative in Spain. Similarly, Muslims in Lebanon, Jordan and Indonesia have positive opinions of Christians, while views are overwhelmingly unfavorable in Turkey and Pakistan; attitudes toward […]
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 […]