# Religious "ratio" in Islamic countries **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103 "2004-04-09T02:44:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/1 "2004-04-09T02:44:58Z")
I hope this makes sense. Are there more religious people vs. atheists in Islamic countries when compared to another country, such as the United States or elsewhere? (Are there more religious people than not?) ---
**Author:** ![sibyl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@sibyl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sibyl)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/2 "2004-04-09T04:00:33Z")
No cite but I’d imagine, with religion being such an integral part of government and culture, much moreso than here, there would be significantly less atheists than religious people. Also, the kind of literature that can reasonably convince someone to become atheist in a strongly religious environment is probably much less commonly available. ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/3 "2004-04-09T06:25:51Z")
Checking the [CIA World Factbook](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/), Islamic countries are considerably more religous than the US or European countries. For example, in the US about 10% of people have no religeon; the listing for Saudi Arabia says 100% Muslim. ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/4 "2004-04-09T20:06:12Z")
Does anyone have any personal anecdotes of how an atheist is looked upon/treated in an Islamic country? ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/5 "2004-04-09T20:30:10Z")
I lived in an African country that is mostly Xtian, but has a sizable Muslim presence. Most everyone, Xtian or Muslim, would regard an atheist they way we would regard someone who insisted that 2+2 = 7. I can recall being asked: “Is it true that in America there are people who don’t believe in God at all?” I said yes, but I don’t think they believed me. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/6 "2004-04-09T21:00:38Z")
> [@RandomLetters](#): > > Checking the [CIA World Factbook](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/), Islamic countries are considerably more religous than the US or European countries. For example, in the US about 10% of people have no religeon; the listing for Saudi Arabia says 100% Muslim. On the other hand, it says for Azerbaijan, paying special attention to the note: > [@](#): > > Muslim 93.4%, Russian Orthodox 2.5%, Armenian Orthodox 2.3%, other 1.8% (1995 est.) > note: religious affiliation is still nominal in Azerbaijan; percentages for actual practicing adherents are much lower which you’d expect, because prior to its breakup, religious practice was discouraged in the Soviet Union. You’ll probably also find lower religiousity in many of the other Muslim former Soviet Republics. So it needs to be looked at on a country to country basis. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/7 "2004-04-09T22:43:51Z")
Depends on the country, of course. From what I understand, Iran (for example) enforces Shari’a law fairly strictly. So does Saudi Arabia. Shari’a law draws quite a few distinctions between Muslims and nonMuslims. It occurs to me that if I lived there, announcing that I was a Christian or a Zoroastrian or an atheist would be tatamount to announcing that I was not entitled to equal protection under the law. How many Iranians or Saudis are that brave? ---
**Author:** ![noname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@noname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noname)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/8 "2004-04-09T23:03:05Z")
The Sunnis consider the Shias as athiests/ non-believers/ kafirs, since the Sunnis outnumber the Shias, in most places, I suppose that makes the ration more tilted towards the believer side. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/9 "2004-04-10T01:08:53Z")
Whoa there, **noname** , watch it with the blanket generalizations. There are _some_ Sunnis who consider the Shi‘ah as kafirs, but this is not a generally accepted belief. What you posted is equivalent to saying that all Protestants believe Catholics are non-Christian. Only some extreme Protestant sects insist on that, while the remaning Protestants think they’re nuts for saying so. (As evidenced by many Great Debates on the subject on these message boards.) Likewise, the “Sunnis” who insist the Shi‘ah are kafirs are mainly Wahhabis, who are widely considered way too extremist by the majority of Muslims. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ratio-in-islamic-countries/239103/10 "2004-04-10T01:37:37Z")
It has to be said the CIA factbook generally takes the most liberal figure for number of adherent, listing nominal members of relgious gropus (I’m not saying this is necessarily the wrong way of doing things, but it should be noted in order to stop the drawing of false conclusions from data). For example the UK is lisyted as 2/3 Christian, but you have to rember only a tiny mnority of those listed a sChristian actually attend church on a regukar basis. Simlairly Turkey is listed 99.8% Muslim, having considerable experincxe of the country however, I would say comparitively there is no more (or perhaps even less) depth of religious feeling than in the US.