Boost your subject knowledge with a free email course on Islam

Pew Research Center, Washington DC

Research Summary

Pew Research Center has conducted more than a decade’s worth of global research on religion, including surveys of Muslims in 39 countries, three comprehensive surveys of Muslim Americans, several demographic studies of the world’s major religions (including population growth projections), and a series of surveys that measure how people living in the U.S. and Europe view Muslims and Islam.

Researchers

Pew Research Center, Washington DC

Research Institution

Pew Research Center, Washington DC

What is this about?

Pew have distilled some key findings from their comprehensive research data into four email mini-lessons, to help interested people develop a better understanding of Muslims and Islam. How differently do Muslims around the globe practice their faith? What do they believe? How are they viewed in public opinion in various Western countries? How much discrimination do they face? Sign up, and you’ll receive an email every other day for about a week. If you want to dig deeper, the emails will offer links to work by the Center that supply more detailed information.

What was done?

Pew’s extensive research findings on Islam from the last decade have been distilled down into a four-email course for those wishing to improve their knowledge and understanding of the faith.

Main findings and outputs

See the course itself, but, for example and to give you a flavour:

With an estimated population of 1.8 billion, Muslims are the world’s second-largest religious group, after Christians. But our surveys have found that about half of Americans – as well as most Western Europeans – say they know little or nothing about Islam.

From lesson 2:

Our survey asked Muslims whether they want sharia, a set of ethical principles based on the Quran and Sunnah (sayings and actions of the prophet), to be the official law of the land in their country. Responses to this question vary widely. Nearly all Muslims in Afghanistan (99%) and most in Iraq (91%) and Pakistan (84%) supported sharia as official law. But in some other countries, especially in Eastern Europe and Central Asia – including Turkey (12%), Kazakhstan (10%) and Azerbaijan (8%) – relatively few favored the implementation of sharia.

Relevance to RE

This course is highly relevant to RE, offering a broadly-based, up-to-date, highly informative subject knowledge boost to teachers. You could also encourage A level students to take it.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Pew Research Center is a major international research generator, and the findings on which this course is based reflect more than a decade’s worth of global research on religion, including surveys of Muslims in 39 countries, three comprehensive surveys of Muslim Americans, several demographic studies of the world’s major religions (including population growth projections), and a series of surveys that measure how people living in the U.S. and Europe view Muslims and Islam.

Find out more

The link to the course, including where to sign up, is https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/19/want-to-know-more-about-muslims-and-islam-weve-got-an-email-course-for-you/