Pew Research Examines What it Means to be Muslim in a World of 1.6 Billion Believers

TRUST | The Pew Charitable Trusts
By Deborah Horan

Turkish Pottery with Sufi meditation dance design.

The Pew Research Center interviewed more than 38,000 Muslims around the globe to provide a deeper understanding of the beliefs and political views of members of the world's second-largest religion. What it means to be a Muslim, it turns out, varies greatly depending on the norms of the country. The survey found that many opinions reflected prevailing cultural, legal, and political attitudes. In Iraq, millions of Shia pilgrims trek to the shrine of Hussein, the slain grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. In Turkey, Sufis spin in trancelike meditation as they pray to God in unison. In West Africa, men chant, "There is no God bu God," sometimes for hours, to commune with the Divine. And in Nigeria, Sunnis celebrate major religious holidays with a parade of the Emir on horseback. What unites these groups and Muslims around the glode is their belief in God and the Prophet Muhammad, as well as fasting and almsgiving. [Fall 2013]