Survey: Muslims give views of bombings, sharia

While most Muslims worldwide reject suicide bombings and other violence in the name of Islam, a significant minority of Muslims in Palestinian territories and Afghanistan favor such acts, according to new Pew Research Center findings.

"Muslims in some countries surveyed in South Asia and the Middle East-North Africa region are more likely than Muslims elsewhere to consider suicide bombing justified," according to the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, a survey of 38,000 Muslims in 39 countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

In Palestinian territories, 40 percent of Muslims favor violence in the name of Islam while 49 percent take the opposite view. In Afghanistan, 39 percent favor such violence. In Egypt, about 29 percent consider suicide bombing justified at least sometimes, Pew reported, compared to only 15 percent in Jordan, 12 percent in Tunisia and 7 percent in Iraq.

Still, concepts and acceptance of sharia law and religious freedom vary widely among the world's Muslims, seemingly dichotomously, with many Muslims saying they favor Islamic law and religious freedom simultaneously because there's no global definition of sharia law or religious freedom that Muslims embrace. Read more