by Richard Wike, Associate Director, Pew Global Attitudes Project In the Middle East and elsewhere, Muslim reaction to the Israeli offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has been swift and angry, with protests in Amman, Beirut, Istanbul, Tehran, Jakarta, and several other capitals. Palestinians in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank, where Hamas rival […]
The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life held a conference call with journalists to discuss the release of a new Pew Forum survey that documents the fluidity of religious affiliation in the U.S. and describes the patterns and major reasons for change. “Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.” […]
Overall, respondents from the countries in the survey with sizeable Muslim populations express positive opinions about Saudi Arabia. In these nations, favorable views of the Saudi Kingdom are far more common than favorable views of other major countries, and are especially widespread in Pakistan and Jordan. Attitudes toward the U.S. are largely negative, and Iran […]
But Few Favor Military Confrontation
Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in December, 2008, for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Vali Nasr, author of the 2006 book, The Shia Revival, surveyed the geo-political landscape of today’s Middle East, arguing that the 2003 invasion of Iraq has fundamentally […]
Members of Congress are often accused of being out of touch with average citizens, but an examination of the religious affiliations of U.S. senators and representatives shows that, on one very basic level, Congress looks much like the rest of the country. Although a majority of the members of the new, 111th Congress, which will […]
The current survey reveals ongoing concerns about a number of threats and conflicts within the Muslim world. Among the eight Muslim publics included in the survey, there is widespread concern about the rise of Islamic extremism both within their countries and in the world more broadly. Many also see a conflict taking place within their […]
In most countries surveyed, majorities consider religion an essential part of their lives. However, younger people are generally less likely to say religion is very important to them. This is especially true in Western Europe, where relatively few young people say religion plays a key role in their lives, but the same pattern can be […]
