DUSHANBE, August 14, 2012, Asia-Plus — According to findings of the survey “The World”s Muslims: Unity and Diversity” conducted by the Pew Research Center, 88 percent of Muslims in Tajikistan fasts during Ramadan.
66 percent of those surveyed said that they pay zakat (zakat, which is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is the giving of a fixed portion of one”s wealth to charity, generally to the poor and needy). 50 percent of those polled in Tajikistan said Islam plays a significant role in their lives. 42 percent of those surveyed pray regularly and 30 percent attend the Friday prayers.
This year, the amount of zakat is 87.00 U.S. dollars for 3,480 U.S. dollars. The amount of zakat to be paid by an individual depends on the amount of wealth, and the type of assets the individual possesses.
The report notes that from its origin on the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century C.E., Islam has grown into a worldwide religion with more than 1.6 billion adherents – nearly a quarter of the world’s population. Today, Muslims live on all inhabited continents and embody a wide range of races, ethnicities and cultures.
This report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life seeks to describe both the unity and the diversity of Islam around the globe. It is based on more than 38,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in over 80 languages with Muslims in 39 countries and territories that collectively are home to roughly two-thirds (67%) of all Muslims in the world. The survey includes every country that has a Muslim population of more than 10 million, except those (such as China, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria) where political sensitivities or security concerns prevented opinion research among Muslims.
The survey was conducted in two waves. Fifteen sub-Saharan African countries with substantial Muslim populations were surveyed in 2008-2009, and some of those findings previously were analyzed in the Pew Forum report “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa.” An additional 24 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe were surveyed in 2011-2012; those results are published here for the first time. This report on religious beliefs and practices, however, is just the first of two planned analyses of the survey data. The Pew Forum plans to issue a second report, focusing on Muslims’ social and political attitudes, in late 2012 or early 2013.
The Pew Forum’s global survey of Islam is part of a larger effort, the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.
