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In numerous countries with a large Muslim and Jewish population, we asked for Muslim and Jewish adults because of their views on religion and management – specifically, should religious law be official or state law for people who share their religion and can their country be able to be Democratic land and Muslim or Jewish land.
We discover that the vast majority of Muslims in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria believe that Sharia, or Islamic Law, should be an official law for Muslims in their country. Much less shares of Muslims in Israel and Turkey agree.
Among the Israelites who are Jews, approximately the third support created by Halakh or the Jewish law, the state law for Jews in Israel.
When it comes to whether the states can have a religious character and be a democracy:
- Most Bangladesh, Indonesians, Malaysians, Tunisians and Turks say that their country can be both a democracy and a Muslim state.
- The minority of Nigerians think Nigeria can be both democratic and Muslim.
- Most Israelites think that Israel can be both democratic and Jewish – although Jewish Israelites are more than twice as likely than Muslim Israelites say.
Should Muslims manage Sharia?
Support for Islamic religious law, also known as Sharia, has been widespread in several surveyed countries of the Muslim majority.
Sharia, or Islamic law, offers moral and legal guidelines for almost all aspects of life for Muslims, From marriage and divorce, to inheritance, contract and criminal punishment. Shariah in its widest definition refers to the ethical principles set up in the Islamic Saint Book (Qur’an) and examples of the action of the Prophet Muhammad (Sunna). Islamic jurisprudence coming out of human exercise of codification and interpretation of these principles is known as fikhh. Muslim scientists and lawyers continue to discuss the border between Sharia and Fikh, as well as other aspects of Islamic law.
About nine-or-Bangladesh Muslims, Indonesia and Malaysia say that they are favored by a legal system in which Muslims are related to Islamic law. About three quarters of Nigerian Muslims agree. At least half of the Muslims in each of these countries say they are strongly favors making Sharia official law for those who share their religion.
Israeli Muslims, who make up about a fifth of their country’s population, are evenly divided into a question: 46% favored Sharia is the official law for Muslims in Israel, while 45% opposite it. An additional 9% did not answer the question.
Over 90% of the Turkish population is Muslim. However, only about a third of the Turkish Muslims (32%) favored the official status of Islamic law. Almost half – 48% multitude – they say they are to counteract making Sharia law for Muslims in his country.
Support for Shariah’s official law for Muslims is a bit associated with religiosity. The Muslim population with a higher rate of daily prayer is more in favor of Sharia to become a law for Muslims in its country. For example, among Malaysian Muslims, 90% say they are prayed at least daily, and 93% are advocated by Sheri to become an official law. Meanwhile, in Israel 58% of Muslims pray at least daily, and 46% support the Sharia.
Among the Muslims in Israel and Turkey, opinions differ depending on age. In both countries, Muslims at the age of 50 or more are more likely to be more likely than those between the ages of 18 and 34 in order to favor the Sharia to become an official law for Muslims.
In Turkey, about four adults with lower levels of education believe that Sharia should be a law for Muslims. Only 22% of the Turks with a higher level of education agree.
Also in Turkey, the Muslim supporters of the ruling justice and development are more than twice as likely than Muslims who do not support the party to favored the legal system based on the sharia (55% compared to 20%).
(For more about religion and management in Turkey, read our October Report: “The Turks rely on Erdoğan, give a National Government of Mixed Rating”)
Should Halakha be a law for Jews?
In Israel, the only world majority of the Land of Land, we asked the Jews if they were Halakha – The traditional set of rules and regulations that run a Jewish life – should be a state law for people who share their religion.
Halakha, or Jewish law, refers to a set of rules and practice that manages a Jewish life. They originate from Torah (the first five books of Hebrew Bible), oral Torah, the second Jewish script and their interpretations of Jewish scholars over the years. There are halacic laws that regulate how Jews pray, celebrate holidays, work, eat, dress and spend their relationships with other Jews and non-Jews. Attitudes to Halakhi generally follow the spectrum of religious respect: Haredim and other Orthodox Jews believe that it is crucial to follow these rules, while less religious Jews tend to oppose the implementation of Halakh.
About a third of Israeli Jews say they are favored by the legal system for Jews on the basis of the Jewish law, while six in ten or more are opposed to such a system. A multitude of 37% to counteract be legally bound halakh.
The Jews in Israel differ significantly in their views of Halakh:
- Haredi (“ultra-Orthodox”) and give (“religious”) Jews have a significantly more likely to favor that Halakhu becomes the official law for Jews in Israel than any mammorts (“traditional”) Jews or hylones (“secular”) Jews. About nine-in–teddy haradi and give Jews express this opinion, while 20% of the Jews Masods and 4% of Jews agree. Haradim and give, as well as a hilon, feel strongly on the topic: half haradim and give strongly favors A legal system for Jews based on Jewish Law, while 70% is a hilon to counteract this.
- Similarly, more than eight in ten Israeli Jews, which are at least praying every day that Halakhah should be a law for Jews in Israel. Only 13% of the Jews that are less often prayed express this opinion.
- Junior Jews (aged 18 to 34) are twice as likely than Jews at the age of 50 and older to say strongly favors making Halakha the official law for Jews in Israel (24% compared to 12%).
- Only a quarter of Israeli Jews with postsecondrace education favors Halakho by state law for Jews. Among the Jews with secondary education or less, the share that agrees is much higher, 43%.
Can the earth be religious and democratic?
In countries with Muslim majority, most of them think that their state can be both democratic and Muslim. The stocks say that these are particularly high in Bangladesh (86%), Tunisia (82%) and Malaysia (80%). (Islam is Official state religion in Bangladesh and Malaysia, and it was an official religion in Tunisia by 2022).
Some less majority in Indonesia (70%) and Turkey (67%) agree that their country at the same time can be a Muslim state and a democratic state.
Of the countries where we asked this question, Nigeria is the only one in which Muslims are not the vast majority of the population. Only 40% of the Nigerians say that Nigeria can be both Muslim and democratic – about half of the shares that express this opinion in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Tunisia. The weak majority of Nigerians (55%) says that can’t be both.
Over half of the Nigerian Muslims (55%) says their country can be Muslim and democratic at the same time, while approximately a third of Nigerian Christians (31%) agree.
The views on this topic also differ in religiousness and education in several surveyed countries:
- In Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey, people who pray at least every day are more likely to be those who ask themselves less to say that their country can be both Muslim and democratic. (However, Nigerians who pray daily are also more likely than other Nigerians to answer the question.)
- Tunisians and Indonesians with less than high school are more likely than those who have more education to say that their country can be both Muslim and democratic.
Can Israel be both democratic and Jewish?
Israel is defined as “Jewish and democratic“, And indeed, 73% of adults surveyed in Israel says their country can be both. Only about two or two of Israelis say that the country cannot be a Jewish state and a democratic state at the same time. Still, there are some significant differences in This issue according to religion and political ideology.
- Israeli Jews are more than twice as likely than Israeli Muslims to say that their country can be both Jewish and Democratic (82% compared to 38%).
- Among the Jewish religious groups, it is most likely to say that Israel can be Jewish and democratically (93%). Less majority haradim/given (81%) and hilon (77%) agree.
- Israelites who are placed on the ideological right (84%) and in the center (77%) are significantly more likely than the Israelites on the left (48%) to say that their country may be both Jewish and democracy.
As people who believe in their country may be religious and democratically vary in their views
In some countries, attitudes according to religious texts and laws differ depending on whether someone will be a Muslim or Jewish state and democracy at the same time.
- In Malaysia those who believe their country may be Muslims and and Democratic 18 points are more likely than those who say they can’t think that the Qur’an should affect Malaysian law a lot (65% by 47%). Similar differences exist between these groups in Indonesia and Nigeria.
- Indonesians and Nigerians who believe their country can be a Muslim and democratic also more likely to say the Qur’an currently It has a great impact on the law in its country.
- Among the Israelites who say that their country can be both Jewish and Democratic, 45% say that the Jewish letter should affect the law in Israel. Among those who say that Israel cannot be both democracy and the Jewish state, less than a third (29%) agrees.
Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria who say their country can be a Muslim and Democratically, at the same time, they are more likely than Muslims who say otherwise to support Sharia become a law for those who share their religion.
In Turkey the truth is the opposite: Muslim Turks saying that their country can be both Muslim and democratic less Probably of those who say that he cannot favor sharia (29% to 40%).