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Middle East & North Africa

Explore Pew Forum publications—including public opinion polls, demographic reports, research studies, event transcripts and interviews—that focus on religion and public life in the Middle East and North Africa.

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The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project
The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.

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ANALYSIS February 23, 2012
Religion in the News: Islam and Politics Dominate Religion Coverage in 2011
The biggest religion stories of 2011 involved tensions over Islam and questions about faith in presidential politics, especially Mormonism, according to an annual review of religion in the news.
ANALYSIS November 4, 2010
Indonesia’s Place Along the Spectrum of Global Religious Restriction
This analysis draws upon testimony on U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy: the Outlook for 2010, before the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Feb. 3, 2010.
EVENT TRANSCRIPT April 27, 2010
A Conversation With Tariq Ramadan
European campaigns to ban burqas, the Swiss vote to bar new construction of minarets and attempted terrorist acts in the United States have renewed questions and concerns about the compatibility of Islam with Western society. Swiss-born scholar and philosopher of Islam Tariq Ramadan has written and spoken on the subject, generating widespread debate and reaction.
EVENT TRANSCRIPT March 19, 2010
Briefing on U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy
Pew Forum Senior Researcher Brian J. Grim presented to the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight on the Pew Forum's findings on restrictions on religion around the world.
ANALYSIS December 17, 2009
Little Support for Terrorism Among Muslim Americans
Recent events such as the Fort Hood shootings and the arrest of five Muslim American students in Pakistan have raised questions about the threat of homegrown terrorism in the U.S.  
EVENT TRANSCRIPT December 17, 2009
Global Restrictions on Religion
More than half a century ago, the United Nations affirmed the principle of religious freedom in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, defining it as "the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion."
ANALYSIS December 17, 2009
Global Restrictions on Religion
This report gauges the level of religious restrictions in 198 countries due both to government actions and to acts of violence and intimidation by private individuals, organizations and social groups.
EVENT TRANSCRIPT November 13, 2009
The Future of Evangelicals: A Conversation with Pastor Rick Warren
The evangelical Christian movement historically has been defined by its members' distinctive doctrinal standards and practices. Yet in recent years many Americans have come to understand evangelicals more by their political, rather than religious, identity. 
EVENT TRANSCRIPT December 8, 2008
America and Islam After Bush
Some of the nation's leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in December, 2008, for the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life.
INTERVIEW October 16, 2008
Ten Years of Promoting Religious Freedom Through U.S. Foreign Policy
Oct. 27 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act, a law that made the promotion of religious freedom a basic aim of U.S. foreign policy.
ANALYSIS September 30, 2008
Abortion Laws Around the World
Abortion is as controversial abroad as it is in the United States. Many governments struggle to strike a balance between the rights of pregnant women and the rights of unborn fetuses.
ANALYSIS July 17, 2008
Stem Cell Research Around the World
The United States is only one of many countries playing an important role in stem cell research. In the last decade, several European and Asian countries have become leading centers for the study of stem cells and their possible therapeutic uses.
INTERVIEW May 15, 2008
The Plight of Iraq's Religious Minorities
The bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom put Iraq on its watch list of countries that violate religious freedom in 2007.
ANALYSIS October 30, 2007
Widespread Negativity: Muslims Distrust Westerners More than Vice Versa
In 2006, the Pew Global Attitudes Project set out to explore religious tensions, examining how non-Muslims in the West and elsewhere view Muslims, as well as how Muslims think about people in western nations.
ANALYSIS October 25, 2007
Turkey and Its (Many) Discontents
Do certain actions reflect some deeper discontent among the Turkish public, or are they simply the Turkish government's response to current, and perhaps temporary, crises in the international arena?
INTERVIEW July 11, 2007
Looking for a Way Out: Rethinking the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Few Palestinian families have deeper roots in Jerusalem than Sari Nusseibeh's. In the 7th century, immediately after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, the caliph Omar the Great entrusted one of Nusseibeh's ancestors with the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
EVENT TRANSCRIPT June 13, 2007
Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization
Seeking to establish dialogue and understanding between Islamic and Western cultures, internationally renowned scholar Akbar Ahmed led a team of dedicated young Americans on a daring and unprecedented tour of the Muslim world.
ANALYSIS May 30, 2007
A Six-Day War: Its Aftermath in American Public Opinion
For six days, beginning June 5, 1967, Israel battled Egypt, Jordan and Syria. As a result of the fighting, Israel won control of the Sinai desert, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
EVENT TRANSCRIPT May 15, 2007
God's Will: Iran's Polity and the Challenges of the Future
Some of the nation's leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2007 for the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life.
EVENT TRANSCRIPT May 8, 2007
International Religious Freedom: Religion and International Diplomacy
Has the State Department interpreted the international religious freedom policy too narrowly over the past decade by focusing on individual cases of religious persecution?
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