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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Tom Brooks-Pollock

The countries where a majority of Muslims want to live under Sharia law

Sharia law, the legal framework based on the moral and legal code of Islam, is rarely out of the news.

Its most extreme interpretations are being enforced by Isis and Boko Haram, it is railed against by Republican presidential candidates, and the Independent recently revealed how Sharia councils in Britain are locking women into "marital captivity" and doing nothing to officially report domestic violence.

But how do Muslims feel about Sharia law?

An international Pew Research Center poll of Muslims, conducted in 2013, found that this varies widely across countries - shown here in a graphic produced by Statista.

Respondents were asked if Sharia should be the official law of the land in their country.

In Afghanistan, 99 per cent said yes, with Iraq (91 per cent), the Palestinian Territories (89 per cent), Malaysia (86 per cent) and Niger (also 86 per cent) the countries next most in favour.


Countries most in favour of Sharia being the law of the land tended to have legal systems that already favoured  Islam over other religions, the poll found.

By contrast, inhabitants of countries, like Turkey, with a tradition of separating state and religion, and - like former Soviet bloc countries - had been secularised from the centre, tended to be less in favour of sharia becoming the law of the land.

In Azerbaijan, for example, only 8 per cent responded in favour, followed by Kazakhstan (10 per cent), Turkey (12 per cent), Albania (12 per cent) and Bosnia (15 per cent).

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