http://dawn.com/2012/05/30/do-shias-prefer-free-market-economy-more-than-sunnis/
Do Shias prefer free market economy more than Sunnis? Murtaza Haider | 3 days ago Notwithstanding the millennia-old sectarian divide, which has embroiled Shias and Sunnis in a bloody feud, one wonders if differences between Shias and Sunnis indeed extend beyond the differences in their beliefs. Given that the sectarian divide between Shias and Sunnis has been the cause of so much bloodshed in the past 1,400 years, one may get the impression that the two main sects of Islam may have irreconcilable differences. But are these differences significant enough to result in different worldviews between the followers of the two sects. For instance, when it comes to views about democracy, free market economy, women rights, and environmental sustainability, do Shias and Sunnis hold divergent views? Educating the west of the differences between Shias and Sunnis has largely been the dominion of Professor Vali Nasr. His well-received book The Shia Revival: How conflicts within Islam will shape the future along with Lesley Hazleton’s After the Prophet: The epic story of Shia-Sunni split in Islam are two accessible texts that explain to the uninitiated how and why the sectarian divide was forged in Islam and its implications today. However, books, articles, and other written works by learned authors, such as prolific writer and academic Juan Cole have not made much difference in creating awareness amongst the largely indifferent western populace. One would assume that before waging not one but two wars in Iraq and another ill-planed misadventure in Afghanistan, the American officials in charge of the trillion dollar military escapades were indeed familiarwith the sectarian fault lines in Afghanistan and Iraq. This, however, was not the case. Writing in the New York Times in October 2006, Jeff Stein revealed that the senior American military officials were clueless about the Shia Sunni differences. The ignorant included “not just intelligence and law enforcement officials, but also members of Congress. Stein wondered “how can they do their jobs without knowing the basics?” While the west remains largely ignorant of, and indifferent to, the details of the Shia-Sunni schism in Islam, even most Muslims may not know if these differences extend beyond the religo-sectarian spheres. Using a 2010 dataset from Pew Research Center I will attempt to explore how Shias and Sunnis diverge or otherwise on non-religious matters. The data are available from Pew Global Attitudes Project’s website. The survey was conducted in 22 countries during April and May of 2010. Over 24,790 individuals were surveyed. The survey was also conducted in seven countries with sizeable Muslim populations such that 28 per cent of all respondents were Muslims (see Table below). The data also identified Muslim respondents by their sect. I have aggregated the sectarian categories into three main groups: Shias, Sunnis, and those who identified themselves as just Muslims. I am not reporting on other sects for which only a small number of observations were available. The subset thus included 74 per cent Sunnis, 6.3 per cent Shias and the remaining 20 per cent identified themselves as just Muslims. Apart from Lebanon, where Shia and Sunni respondents were in an almost even split, Sunnis were in majority in most countries with the exception of Indonesia where most respondents identified themselves as just Muslims. Given that Lebanon is the only country in the sample where a sizeable number of respondents identified themselves as Shias, Sunnis, and others, I have further restricted reporting to Lebanon, which also had its fair share of sectarian conflicts that transcended beyond the Shia-Sunni schism and included several Christian sects resulting in a bloody civil war during eighties and later wars with Israel. While the demographic mix in Lebanon is disputed by all concerned, Shias and Sunnis are reported to account for 27 per cent each and a large number of Christian sects account for another 39 per cent of the population. Source: Pew Research Centre: Global Attitudes Project, Spring 2010 Survey data So do Shias prefer free market economy more than Sunnis? For Lebanon, the answer is yes. When asked if they agreed or otherwise with the statement that most people are better off in a free market economy, 28 per cent of the Shias completely agreed with the statement compared to 10 per cent of the Sunnis. At the same time 22 per cent non-Muslims in Lebanon completely agreed with the same statement. And whereas 14 per cent of the Sunnis reported support for segregating men and women at the workplace, only eight per cent of the Shias showed support for gender segregation at workplace. A large number of Lebanese Shias (48 per cen) reported being very concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism in Lebanon compared to Sunnis (30 per cent). Non-Muslim at 66 per cent were obviously the most alarmed about the spread of Islamic extremism in Lebanon. Concomitantly, every three out of four Shias viewed Shia-Sunni differences a very big problem compared to only 40 per cent of the Sunnis who felt the same. Again, only seven per cent of Lebanese Shias showed support for harsh punishments, such as chopping off hands of thieves, compared to 19 per cent of Sunnis. When it comes to the US influence in the world, Shias and Sunnis in Lebanon don’t see eye to eye on America’s war on terror. Almost all Shias (98 per cent) opposed the US efforts to fight terrorism compared to only 53 per cent of Sunnis. Similarly, 96 per cent of Shias and 55 per cent of Sunnis wanted the US and Nato to remove their troops from Afghanistan. While Lebanese Shias have demonstrated a progressive streak in several facets of social life, they have also reported more regressive views than Sunnis in several other aspects. For instance, 75 per cent of Sunnis completely agreed with the statement that women should be able to work outside the home compared to 63 per cent of Shias. Similarly 40 per cent of Shias completely agreed with the statement that men should have more right to a job when jobs are scarce compared to only 23 per cent of Sunnis. Twice as many Shias (30 per cent) demonstrated support for stoning to death of those accused of adultery than Sunnis. And lastly 22 per cent of Shias in Lebanon thought that suicide bombings and violence against civilian targets was often justified in a conflict compared to nine per cent of Sunnis. Source: Pew Research Centre: Global Attitudes Project, Spring 2010 Survey data Shias, Sunnis and others reported similar responses on matters related with protecting the environment and equal rights for men and women, suggesting that there was some convergence of views. Similarly, there were some expected differences, such as Shias in Lebanon reported confidence in the Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad while Sunnis reported confidence in the Saudi King Abdullah. The Pew data set is not detailed enough to develop a sound theory of how Shias and Sunnis differ in their respective worldviews. The analysis presented here offers only a partial, but still useful, assessment of how the followers of the two main sects in Islam hold divergent or similar views about non-religious matters. Indeed, no attempt is being made to demonstrate one sect’s superiority over the other because no such evidence was found. The mix bag of results suggests that elements of modernity and orthodoxy could be found sprinkled along the sectarian divide amongst Lebanese Muslims. The same is perhaps true for Muslims elsewhere. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Murtaza Haider, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean of research and graduate programs at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto. He can be reached by email at [email protected] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! 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