Global Views of Muslims, Christians and Jews

A recent study conducted by Pew Research Center surveyed populations on their views of Muslims, Christians and Jews in 14 different countries. As the chart (right) indicates, in four of the six predominately Christian countries included in the study (the US, Britain, France and Russia), a majority of the population said they viewed Muslims favorably. Spain and Germany were the two exceptions, with 37% and 45% respectively having favorable opinions of Muslims. Western views of Jews were largely favorable in these countries ranging from 59% favorable in Spain to 84% favorable in France. While Muslim views of Christians varied widely, they were generally less favorable than Western views of Muslims. A majority of those surveyed in Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt did not view Christians favorably while only a narrow majority in Indonesia (52%) and Jordan (57%) viewed Christians favorably. Lebanon, which has a substantial Christian population, was the exception to this trend with 98% of those surveyed having favorable views of Christians. Those surveyed in predominately Muslim countries had significantly less favorable views of Jews than they did of Christians, with less than 10% having favorable views of Jews in each of the countries. Of those surveyed in Israel, 19% had favorable views of Muslims, 54% had favorable views of Christians, and 88% had favorable views of Jews.



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