Sub-Saharan Africans Deeply Committed to Christianity and Islam

New Pew-Templeton Survey of 19 African Nations Finds Signs of Tolerance and Tensions Between the Faiths

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2010 - The vast majority of people in many sub-Saharan African nations are
deeply committed to one or the other of the world's two largest religions,
Christianity and Islam, and yet many continue to practice elements of
traditional African religions. Most people support democracy and say it is a
good thing that people from other religions are able to practice their faith
freely. At the same time, many also favor making the Bible or sharia law the
official law of the land. And while many Muslims and Christians describe
members of the other faith as tolerant and honest, there are clear signs of
tensions and divisions between the faiths.

These are some of the key findings of a new survey released by the Pew
Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. "Tolerance and Tension:
Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa" is based on a major public
opinion poll exploring religion and society in the region. It is funded by a
generous grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton
Foundation as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project,
which aims to increase people's knowledge of religion around the world.

The survey is based on more than 25,000 face-to-face interviews conducted
in more than 60 languages or dialects in 19 countries. The countries were
selected to represent different geographical areas and reflect different
colonial histories, linguistic backgrounds and religious compositions. In
total, the nations surveyed contain three-quarters of the population of
sub-Saharan Africa.

While 90% or more of the respondents in most of the countries surveyed
identify as Christian or Muslim, many people retain beliefs that are
characteristic of traditional African religions, such as belief in the
protective powers of sacrifices to spirits and ancestors. Many keep sacred
objects such as animal skins and skulls in their homes and consult
traditional religious healers when someone in their household is sick.

The report finds that on several measures Christians and Muslims in
sub-Saharan Africa hold favorable views of each other, and in most countries
relatively few see evidence of widespread anti-Muslim or anti-Christian
hostility in their country. But Muslims and Christians also acknowledge that
they know relatively little about each other's faith. And substantial numbers
of African Christians (nearly 40% or more in a dozen nations) say they
consider Muslims to be violent, while Muslims are more positive in their
assessment of Christians.

Additional findings from the survey include:

    - Sub-Saharan Africans generally rank crime, corruption and unemployment
      as bigger problems than religious conflict. However, substantial
      numbers of people (including nearly six-in-ten Nigerians and Rwandans)
      say religious conflict is a very big problem in their country.

    - The degree of concern about religious conflict varies from country to
      country but tracks closely with the degree of concern about ethnic
      conflict in many countries, suggesting that they are often related.

    - Many Africans are concerned about religious extremism, including within
      their own faith in some countries. Indeed, many Muslims say they are
      more concerned about Muslim extremism than about Christian extremism,
      while Christians in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia say they are
      more concerned about Christian extremism than about Muslim extremism.

    - In most countries, at least half of Muslims say that women should not
      have the right to decide whether to wear a veil, saying instead that the
      decision should be up to society as a whole.

    - Religion in sub-Saharan Africa often involves intense, personal
      encounters with God, divine healings and other experiences often
      associated within the Christian community with Pentecostalism. But many
      of these beliefs and practices are common among African Christians who
      are not affiliated with Pentecostal churches.

    - Majorities in almost every country say that Western music, movies and
      television have harmed morality in their nation. Yet majorities in most
      countries also say they personally like Western entertainment.

    - In comparison with people in many other regions of the world,
      sub-Saharan Africans are highly optimistic that their lives will change
      for the better.

The 19 countries represented in the survey are: Botswana, Cameroon, Chad,
Djibouti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau,
Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal,
Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The report, including a summary of findings and an interactive Web
component, is available online (pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=515).

The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life conducts
surveys, demographic analyses and other social science research on important
aspects of religion and public life in the U.S. and around the world. As part
of the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy
organization, the Pew Forum does not take positions on any of the issues it
covers or on policy debates.

The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve
today's most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical
approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic
life.

The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for
research and discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and
ultimate reality. The Foundation supports work at the world's top
universities in such fields as theoretical physics, cosmology, evolutionary
biology, cognitive science, and social science relating to love, forgiveness,
creativity, purpose, and the nature and origin of religious belief. It also
seeks to stimulate new thinking about freedom and free enterprise, character
development, and exceptional cognitive talent and genius.

Mary Schultz, +1-202-419-4556 or Robbie Mills, +1-202-419-4564, both of Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life