Of course, we can argue that a self-reported "importance" means little and probably wouldn't allow for international or even individual comparisons.
Plus it's a yes or no question, there's no "how much" or, more importantly, "how".
Anyways.
For comparison purposes, Iran scored 83%, USA 65%, France 25%, Israel 50%.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and finally Estonia came at the end of the list, with 20, 18, 17, and 14% respectively.
Interestingly, 7 out of the top 10 most religious countries are majority Muslim countries.
And 8 out of 10 are in Sub-Saharan African or East Asia.
The link between underdevelopment and religiosity (not religion: religiosity) is one I'd be keen to explore...
(And speaking of religion, this still cracks me up.)
8 comments:
In Sweden, you're almost considered a bit strange if you're religious....That being said, we have a large minority of muslims, some of which are quite religious. So Sweden is going through some changes. In fact, I think we should start thinking of acknoledging somem muslim and jewish holidays as well, since Sweden is a multicultural society now. Seems only fair, since most "christians" see Chrismas as a nice holiday and nothing more...
Helen in London
Thank you for this post which I stole and wrote about myself... alf shukran ya beh mido!
I think that the arab/islamic countries have a lot of misconceptions about the religion
(Religious=Good / Secular=Evil) and this is why many of which may have misunderstood the question itself :)
I found This Video to be very intersting :)
Egyptians most religious people? My ass!
Well why not, 80% of the men attend Gomaa prayers and 80% of the women are veiled, kind of explains it wouldn't you agree?
What with all the corruption, all the bribery, all the harassment, all the negativity...don't ask.
Exactly, I have never heard about a country at which a mob of 100 youths would attack women strolling through the streets other than Egypt.
Sorry for the late replies, everyone! Been away. :)
I obviously agree with Wild at Heart and Khaled; if we're religious, then, as we say, 3alal donya el salaam!
The survey design appears very lacking to me.
Imagine the pollster walking in the streets of a city - say, Cairo - and seeing people, asking them "is religion important to you?"
I can guarantee that no one, especially if there's someone else listening, will dare to say no, even if they believe so.
Abu Hamza - dude, abouss eidak, drop the mido thing!
Helen,
I for one celebrate Christmas. Birthday of baby Jesus or not, the holiday has developed an identity of its own which I am perfectly comfortable assimilating with.
This will unavoidably be less the case with Muslim and Jewish holidays. While I very much support recognising people's religious specificity and their various God-related needs - including taking certain off - they are bound to be exclusive.
Another obvious link is that the least religious are among the richest countries in the world whilst the most religious are among the poorest countries in the world. :)
And this isn't only richness in GDP but GDP per capita. Rich gulf countries, the US, etc still have a greater gap between rich and poor unlike the lesser religious countries mentioned here (like the Nordics). So much for religious people being more "giving."
This map makes a lot of sense, if you ask me.
Anon,
This is what I meant by "the link between underdevelopment and religiosity".
Interesting comment about income gap. It could be fun if someone would do a simple correlation between this religiosity index and a Gini coefficient (which measures income inequality within a country)...
Perhaps, indeed, we might see an obvious connection...
However, I'm not sure putting all countries with an income in the same bag makes sense though. I remember a professor asking us this question in class:
'Would you rather be in the bottom 10% of a rich country, or the top 10% of a poor one?" and answer a) was economically the winner...
Post a Comment