Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Buddhism, Islam and Religious Pluralism in South and Southeast Asia
Most Malaysian Muslims say religious leaders should be politicians as well as talk about their politics
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- Buddhism, Islam and Religious Pluralism in South and Southeast Asia
- Countries included in this survey
- Religion-state integrationists more likely to see threat in minority religious population growth
- Religion-state integrationists less willing to accept Christian neighbors
- Religion-state integrationists more likely than others to support religious leaders being politicians
- Those who strongly link their nation and religion are more likely to be religious
- Cambodia’s Buddhists nearly all support basing the law on Buddhist dharma
- Majority of Singapore’s unaffiliated who believe in God, unseen beings also think karma exists
- Majority of Singapore’s religious ‘nones’ say they believe in God or unseen beings
- Increasing shares of Singaporean adults identify as Christian or religiously unaffiliated
- 15% of Singaporean adults have disaffiliated from a religion since childhood
- Many adults in Singapore are shedding Buddhist, Chinese traditional religious identities
- More education not universally tied to less religious observance
- Younger Buddhists more accepting of religious conversion from Buddhism
- Younger adults slightly more likely than their elders to believe in spirits
- 9 in 10 households in Sri Lanka and Thailand perform rituals on death anniversaries
- Religious funeral practices especially common in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand
- Sri Lankans often pray or offer their respects to figures from other religions
- Majorities across all surveyed countries believe in God or unseen beings
- Most people in the countries surveyed identify as Buddhist or Muslim
- In most countries, high consistency between childhood and current religion
- Muslims more likely than others to say conversion away from their faith is unacceptable
- Singaporeans most likely to view various religions as compatible with their society
- Few express negative sentiments about diversity in their country
- Most Malaysian Muslims say religious leaders should be politicians as well as talk about their politics
- Most Indonesian and Malaysian Muslims describe Islam as more than a religion
- Cambodian Buddhists express comparatively high levels of support for engagement by religious leaders in politics
- Cambodian Buddhists overwhelmingly favor basing national law on dharma
- Many Thai Buddhists see Buddhism as an ethnicity
- Religion and national identity tied together in Buddhist-majority countries