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Explore Pew Forum publications—including public opinion polls, demographic reports, research studies, event transcripts and interviews—on key issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs:

 

Abortion Education Politics & Elections
Church-State Law Gay Marriage & Homosexuality Science & Bioethics
Death Penalty Government Social Welfare
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.
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.
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.
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.  
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."
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.
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. 
Religion in South Africa 15 Years After the End of Apartheid
Data from a 10-country survey of Pentecostals conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life in 2006 provides estimates of the religious affiliation of South Africa's urban population.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
Nigeria's Presidential Election: The Christian-Muslim Divide
by Robert Ruby and Timothy Samuel Shah, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life March 21, 2007 A Muslim man walks past a church gate in Lagos, Nigeria. (AP Images) If Nigeria's presidential election takes place as scheduled on April 21, it will ma...
Religion in a Globalizing World
Some of the nation's leading journalists and distinguished scholars gathered in Key West, Fla., in December 2006 for the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Peter Berger, professor emeritus of religio...
Israel and the Future of Zionism
Israel and the Future of Zionism 2006-12-04 Key West, Florida Some of the nation's leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in December 2006 for the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Peter Berkowitz, a Hoover Institution fellow, and Ari Shavit, a
Legislating International Religious Freedom
With the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, the United States became one of the few countries in the world to make promotion of religious freedom an explicit foreign policy goal. The act, signed into law by President Clint...
Spirit and Power Press Conference
The Pew Forum held a telephone news conference with reporters across the country to discuss key findings from a new international poll, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals.
God's Country? Evangelicals and U.S. Foreign Policy
In his recent article in Foreign Affairs, Walter Russell Mead argues that as U.S. evangelicals exert increasing political influence, they are becoming a powerful force in foreign affairs. In recent years, evangelicals have voted overwhelmingly Rep...
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