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Demokratisyn och sharia-attityder

Sverige saknar systematisk forskning på attityder i religiösa minoriteter — vi extrapolerar därför inte. Däremot finns det stora internationella studier från ursprungsländer och europeiska grannar. Den geografiska sammansättningen av Sveriges utomeuropeiska invandring gör dessa siffror relevanta som diskussionsunderlag.

Källor: Pew Research 2013/2017, Ifop/Institut Montaigne 2020, European Values Study 2017.

Last updated: View changelog

Fact pageSources checked
How we measureAttityddata — metod →

Pew 2013 — stöd för sharia som officiell lag (per ursprungsland)

Pew Research Center frågade ~38 000 muslimer i 39 länder. Andelen avser muslimer i respektive land.

Bas per kolumn (Pew 2013): 'Sharia som lag' = andel av alla muslimer. 'Apostasi → dödsstraff' = andel av dem som stödjer sharia som lag (villkorad följdfråga). 'Hedersmord motiverat' = Pews fråga om det kan vara berättigat 'när en kvinna begår en moralisk överträdelse' (separat fråga från manligt offer).

Afghanistan

Region
Sydasien
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
99 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
79 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
60 %

Pakistan

Region
Sydasien
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
84 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
76 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
41 %

Egypten

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
74 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
86 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
26 %

Iraq

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
91 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
42 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
22 %

Jordanien

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
71 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
82 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
34 %

Palestinska terr.

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
89 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
66 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
22 %

Marocko

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
83 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
—
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
11 %

Tunisien

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
56 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
—
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
8 %

Türkiye

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
12 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
17 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
18 %

Lebanon

Region
MENA
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
29 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
46 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
6 %

Albanien

Region
Europa
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
12 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
8 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
14 %

Bosnien

Region
Europa
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
15 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
15 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
6 %

Bangladesh

Region
Sydasien
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
82 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
44 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
36 %

Indonesien

Region
Sydostasien
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
72 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
18 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
11 %

Malaysia

Region
Sydostasien
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
86 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
62 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
49 %

Nigeria

Region
Sub-Sahara
Sharia som lag (av alla muslimer)
71 %
Apostasi → dödsstraff (av sharia-anhängare)
29 %
Hedersmord motiverat (kvinnligt offer)
18 %

Ifop 2020 — muslimer i Frankrike (generationer)

Ifop/Institut Montaigne. Visar att attityder inte alltid mildras med tid i landet — bland unga är sharia-stödet ofta högre än i föräldra­generationen.

Sharia bör stå över fransk lag

Alla muslimer
28 %
Under 25 år
46 %

Slöja på flickor i grundskolan acceptabelt

Alla muslimer
45 %
Under 25 år
58 %

Polygami bör tillåtas

Alla muslimer
12 %
Under 25 år
19 %

Kvinnans frihet — värdegap

European/World Values Survey (EVS/WVS 2017–2022, gemensamma dataset). Andel som tar tydligt avstånd från påståendet att en hustru måste lyda sin man. Sverige/Danmark från EVS; Pakistan/Egypten/Irak/Afghanistan från WVS Wave 7.

* Sverige-siffran för MENA-bakgrund bygger på EVS-undermängd för utrikes födda från MENA — n ≈ 180, tolkas med försiktighet.

Sverige (alla)

Share
96 %

Sverige (MENA-bakgrund)*

Share
64 %

Denmark

Share
94 %

Pakistan

Share
41 %

Egypten

Share
27 %

Iraq

Share
31 %

Afghanistan

Share
18 %

Primary sources

The question this page answers

What do research and surveys show about attitudes to democracy, religious law and legal systems — and how should such data be interpreted?

At a glance

Key figures — the most important numbers on this page

Core distinction

Sharia ≠ state law

Sharia is a religious ethical/legal tradition. State legislation in Muslim-majority countries is rarely identical with classical sharia — it blends sharia, common law, code civil and local custom.

Support for sharia as official law

12–99 %

Pew 2013: span from Turkey (12 %), Lebanon (29 %) to Afghanistan (99 %) — not a uniform Muslim position.

Comparable national survey

No Swedish

Sweden lacks a systematic representative study of faith-based attitudes among Muslims. Extrapolation from country of origin is methodologically weak.

European Court case law

Refah 2003

Refah Partisi v. Turkey: sharia as state law is incompatible with the Convention's democracy requirements. Concerns state law — not individual religious practice.

Typical Pew sample size per country

n ≈ 1,000

Yields a margin of error of ± 3–4 percentage points. Differences below 5 pp between countries should be treated cautiously.

Method risk

Question effect

Wordings such as 'religious law' vs 'sharia' vs 'Islamic ethics' produce different responses in the same population (Pew and Arab Barometer methodology reports).

Ifop 2020 France

Generational gap

Under 25: 46 % for sharia over French law; total among Muslims: 28 %. Attitudes do not automatically soften over time.

Long-term trend

Secularisation

WVS shows falling support for religious law in some Muslim-majority countries (Tunisia, Iran estimates) and rising in others (Turkey after 2002).

What does the data show?

Objective observations — not interpretations

  • Attitudes to sharia vary dramatically between countries — from 12 % (Turkey) to 99 % (Afghanistan) per Pew 2013. There is no uniform 'Muslim position' on religious law; country, region, education and generation explain more than religious affiliation alone.
  • The concept of 'sharia' is ambiguous. In classical Islamic legal tradition it covers both individual ethics (prayer, fasting, alms) and social regulation (family law, criminal law). Questions that do not distinguish these give inflated figures.
  • Sweden lacks a representative national study of attitudes to democracy and religious law among Muslims. Such studies have been done in the Netherlands (SCP), Denmark (Rockwool Foundation) and the United Kingdom (Policy Exchange) — but the results cannot be transferred directly to Sweden.
  • Ifop 2020 (France, n ≈ 1,028) shows that attitudes do not always soften with time in the country: 46 % of Muslims under 25 believe sharia should override French law, versus 28 % overall. A generational shift running counter to classical assimilation theory.
  • The European Court of Human Rights ruled in Refah Partisi v. Turkey (2003) that introducing sharia as state law is incompatible with the Convention's democracy requirements. The judgment concerns state legislation — not individual Muslims' religious practice or private life.
  • Survey data on normative values are especially sensitive to social desirability, question wording and sampling bias. Differences below 5 pp fall within the margin of error and should not be treated as real differences.

Method note
We report (1) country data from Pew Research 2013 (n ≈ 38,000 Muslims in 39 countries), (2) generational data from Ifop 2020 (n ≈ 1,028 Muslims in France), (3) values data from World Values Survey Wave 7 and European Values Study 2017. All figures are shares of respondents answering 'yes' or 'agree' to specifically worded questions. We do not generalise to entire Muslim populations, to Sweden where data is missing, or to future attitudes. The question wording used is decisive for how the answers should be interpreted — we reproduce the original wording.

Definitions

How the numbers are counted — and what they do not cover

Sharia
Islamic normative doctrine covering both individual religious ethics and social regulation. Classically built on the Qur'an, sunna (the Prophet's example), analogy (qiyas) and consensus (ijma).
Fiqh
Islamic jurisprudence — the human interpretation and application of sharia. Developed in several legal schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali).
Legal school (madhhab)
Classical fiqh tradition. Four Sunni schools and one main Shia school (Jafari). Differences concern interpretation of the sources, not the sources themselves.
State law
Legislation enacted by state/parliament. In most Muslim-majority countries it blends colonial civil law (Napoleonic or common law), sharia-influenced family law and local custom.
Democracy
Political system where state power is accountable to citizens via general elections, opposition, independent courts and human-rights protection.
Rule of law
Principle that state power is subordinate to law; guarantees equality before the law, predictability and legal protection independent of religion, sex or ethnicity.
Secularism
Separation of religion and state. May be strict (French laïcité) or soft (Nordic model with the Church of Sweden as former state church until 2000).
Freedom of religion
Constitutional right (Instrument of Government 2:1) and Article 9 of the ECHR. Includes the right to hold, change and practise belief — and not to practise.
Apostasy
Leaving a religion. Criminalised in several Muslim-majority states. In Sweden and the EU a fundamental right.
Opinion survey
Measurement of attitudes in a sample of a population. Quality depends on the sample's representativity, question construction and response rate.
Representativity
How well the sample reflects the population. Snowball samples and web panels are weakly representative; random samples strong.
Sampling error
Statistical uncertainty from measuring a sample rather than the full population. At n = 1,000: about ± 3 percentage points.
Question wording effect
How the formulation affects the answer. 'Sharia' vs 'religious law' vs 'Islamic ethics' produce different responses in the same population.
Social desirability
Tendency to give socially accepted answers. Understates taboo views in interviews, overstates them in anonymous web surveys.
Cohort effect
Difference between generations that persists over time — as opposed to age effects that fade as individuals age.
Extrapolation
Drawing conclusions about one population from data about another. From country-of-origin data to a Swedish context requires assumptions about selection, integration and time in the country.

Primary sources

Agencies and research institutions behind this page

3

agencies/institutions

6

reports & studies

4

primary datasets

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to what is most often discussed

Sharia is Islamic normative doctrine — a collective term for religious ethics and legal tradition built on the Qur'an and sunna. Classically it covers both individual practice (prayer, fasting) and social regulation (family law, criminal law). When people answer 'yes' to 'do you want sharia' they can mean very different things: from personal religious practice to state criminal law. Question wording is therefore decisive for interpretation.

Related topics

Logical next steps if you want to understand the background

Sources for this page

The data comes from official primary sources.

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  author       = {Sverigefakta.com},
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