Egyptians want more Islam in politics: Poll
PARIS:
Egyptians want Islam to play a large role in politics, reject radical Islam and think democracy is the best political system, according to poll data collected in Muslim countries last year.
The data,
published by the US based Pew Research Center in December, gives an idea of Egyptian public opinion before the current protests there broke out.
Collected in April and May of last year for Pews Global Attitudes Project, the report described Muslim attitudes about religion in politics in seven countries Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
A sample group of 1,000 was surveyed in face-to-face interviews. Here are the data for Egyptian responses:
On Islam in politics
Is it good that Islam plays a large role in politics? 95 per cent said yes and 2 per cent bad.
Is Islams influence in politics positive or negative? 85 per cent said positive, 2 per cent said negative.
How much of a role does Islam play in Egyptian politics now? 48 per cent said large and 49 per cent said small.
Is there a struggle between groups that want to modernize Egypt and Islamic fundamentalists? 31 per cent said yes. Of them, 27 per cent described themselves as modernisers and 59 per cent called themselves fundamentalists.
On Islamic extremism
Are suicide bombings justified? 46 per cent said never, 34 per cent rarely, 12 per cent sometimes and 8 per cent often. (NOTE: Support for suicide bombing has dropped since 2006, when 28 per cent said they were justified sometimes or often.)
Are you concerned about Islamic extremism in the world? 70 per cent said they were very concerned or concerned.
Are you concerned about Islamic extremism in Egypt? 61 per cent said they were very concerned or concerned.
On Foreign Islamic movements
What do you think of Hamas? 49 per cent were favourable.
What do you think of Hezbollah? 30 per cent were favourable.
What do you think of al Qaeda? 20 per cent were favourable.
Do you have confidence in Osama bin Laden? 19 per cent said some or a lot, 73 per cent said not much or none. (NOTE: Confidence in bin Laden has fallen from 27 per cent in 2006).
On traditional Muslim practices
Should men and women be segregated in the workplace? 54 per cent said yes and 44 per cent no.
Should adulterers be stoned? 82 per cent said yes.
Should apostates from Islam face the death penalty? 84 per cent said yes.
Should thieves be flogged or have their hands cut off? 77 per cent said yes.
On democracy
Is democracy preferable to any other kind of government? 59 per cent said yes.
Can a non-democratic system be preferrable in certain circumstances? 22 per cent said yes.
Is it irrelevant to you what kind of government you have? 16 per cent said yes.
The report can be read on Pew Research Centers website here.