Sharia and liberal democracy

“Sharia” is often used in public argument as if it were a single statute book. It is not. Pew’s 2013 report, which is the main source on this page, distinguishes the broader moral idea of sharia from fiqh, the human work of interpretation, and records that Muslims “differ widely in how they interpret certain aspects of sharia.” That is a reason to be precise. It is not a reason to avoid the question this page asks: what happens to liberal democracy when religious law is made the official law of the land, especially where official law includes criminal punishments, unequal family rules, and penalties for leaving or criticizing the faith?

This page reports survey results by country and question. It does not treat any percentage as a verdict on Muslim Americans, or on every Muslim in the countries Pew surveyed.

Pew 2013: support for sharia as official law

In The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society (30 April 2013), Pew asked Muslims in 39 countries whether they favored making sharia “the official law of the land.” The work involved more than 38,000 face-to-face interviews in 80-plus languages, conducted between 2008 and 2012. Pew did not survey several large Muslim populations, including China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, where it said political or security conditions prevented polling.

Support varied widely. Pew’s headline range is “from fewer than one-in-ten in Azerbaijan (8%) to near unanimity in Afghanistan (99%).” Regional medians for those favoring official sharia were 84% in South Asia, 77% in Southeast Asia, 74% in the Middle East–North Africa, 64% in sub-Saharan Africa, 18% in Southern and Eastern Europe, and 12% in Central Asia.

Selected country figures from Pew’s “Support for Sharia” table (question Q79a) include:

Country or territory	% of Muslims who favor making sharia official law
Afghanistan	99
Iraq	91
Palestinian territories	89
Malaysia	86
Niger	86
Pakistan	84
Morocco	83
Bangladesh	82
Djibouti	82
Thailand (southern provinces)	77
Egypt	74
DR Congo	74
Indonesia	72
Jordan	71
Nigeria	71
Tunisia	56
Russia (in Muslim areas)	42
Lebanon	29
Turkey	12
Albania	12
Kazakhstan	10
Azerbaijan	8

Pew also reported 71% in Nigeria, 72% in Indonesia, 74% in Egypt, and 89% in the Palestinian territories in the executive summary, as examples of “solid majorities” in several regions. Some country questionnaires were modified (for example, Russia and southern Thailand were asked about sharia in Muslim areas). Sub-Saharan figures except Niger were drawn from Pew’s earlier Tolerance and Tension study. The question was not asked in Uzbekistan.

What supporters said sharia should do

Wanting “sharia” as official law is not the same as wanting every classical penalty. Pew asked follow-up questions of those who already favored official sharia.

Who should be subject to it. In most of the 21 countries where the follow-up was asked, most of those supporters said the law should apply only to Muslims. Only in five of those 21 countries did at least half say it should apply to all citizens. The belief that it should extend to non-Muslims was most common in the Middle East and North Africa, though even there it was not uniform (Pew cited Iraq at 38% and Morocco at 29% of sharia supporters on this follow-up, and 61% in Afghanistan versus 34% in Pakistan).

Family and property. Support for letting religious judges decide family and property disputes was broad among sharia supporters: for example, 95% in Egypt, 93% in Jordan, 88% in Malaysia, and 87% in Pakistan, and at least half in 17 of 20 countries with adequate samples. It was much lower in Kosovo (26%) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (24%).

Corporal punishment for theft. In 10 of 20 countries with adequate samples, at least half of sharia supporters favored penalties such as whipping or cutting off the hands of thieves — including 88% in Pakistan and 81% in Afghanistan, 76% in the Palestinian territories, 70% in Egypt, and 66% in Malaysia, but 45% in Indonesia and 44% in Tunisia.

Stoning for adultery. In 10 of 20 countries, at least half of sharia supporters favored stoning unfaithful spouses — including 89% in Pakistan, 85% in Afghanistan, 84% in the Palestinian territories, and 81% in Egypt.

Death for leaving Islam. As reported in more detail on the apostasy and blasphemy page, support for executing converts, among sharia supporters, reached 86% in Egypt and 82% in Jordan, and was as low as 4% in Kazakhstan. Pew notes that this was, overall, the least favored of the severe applications it asked about.

These breakdowns are why a responsible account cannot stop at a single percentage. They are also why the hard applications cannot be waved away as a misunderstanding of the question. In several countries, large shares of those who want official sharia also want the corporal and capital rules.

U.S. Muslim views, for contrast

Pew’s 2017 survey of U.S. Muslims did not ask whether sharia should be the official law of the land in the United States. That is a real gap, and it should be stated as one. The comparable 2013 global question was not repeated here.

What the 2017 survey did ask is whether there is “a natural conflict between the teachings of Islam and democracy.” Among 1,001 U.S. Muslim adults interviewed from 23 January to 2 May 2017 (average margin of error ±5.8 points), 65% said there is no such conflict and 30% said there is (5% did not know or refused). The U.S. general public, in an April 2017 comparison survey, was split: 46% saw no conflict, 44% saw one. Pew also found, in a related chapter, that 64% of U.S. Muslims said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of Islam, and 31% said there is only one.

Those U.S. figures are a contrast, not a rebuttal, to the 2013 global results. They describe a different population, in a different legal order, answering a different question. They are consistent with a simple civic point already made elsewhere on this site: Muslim Americans are fellow citizens, and their surveyed views should be reported accurately, not inferred from polls taken in Kabul or Cairo.

Why the question matters for liberal democracy

Liberal democracy, as this project uses the term, requires at least these things: the law is made by accountable human institutions; it applies equally; a person may leave a religion or criticize it without risking prison or death; and family law does not assign women half a voice or half a share by religious status. A personal ethic called sharia can coexist with that order. A state that enforces apostasy, blasphemy, corporal hudud penalties, or unequal testimony and inheritance as public law cannot, except by emptying the word “liberal” of meaning.

The 2013 survey shows that, in particular countries, large shares of respondents want official sharia, and that a substantial subset of those respondents also want the harshest rules. The 2017 U.S. survey shows a Muslim population that, when asked about Islam and democracy, mostly denied a natural conflict. Both findings belong in the same conversation. Neither is a license to treat people as enemies.

Sources for this page

• Pew Research Center, The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society (30 April 2013), including the “Support for Sharia” table (Q79a) and follow-ups on application (Q92a–d).
• Pew Research Center, “American Muslims’ political and social views” (26 July 2017), and the full 2017 U.S. Muslims report.
• Pew Research Center, “American Muslims’ religious beliefs and practices” (26 July 2017).