"What Causes Muslims to Doubt Islam? A Quantitative Analysis"
Published: February 13, 2018 • Updated: July 22, 2024
Author: Dr. Youssef Chouhoud
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Introduction
The Roads to and from Doubt
Methodology
Sometimes, certain experiences or teachings lead people to deeply question their faith. To what extent have the following issues EVER caused you to seriously doubt your religious beliefs?
- Teachings about the role of women
- The hypocrisy of religious people; that is, the nonreligious behavior of supposedly religious individuals
- The bad things that people do in the name of religion
- The intolerance that some religious people show toward other faiths
- The way that religious people sometimes insist that there is only one "right" way to practice faith
- The intolerance that some religious people show toward certain other people (e.g., homosexuals)
- The debate over Evolution (through natural selection) vs. Creation (through God)
- Uncertainty over the existence of God
- The problem of evil and unfair suffering in the world
- Feeling that certain religious beliefs or practices do not make sense
- Finding that being religious does not make one happy
- Not feeling welcomed in your faith community
- The death of a loved one
The Sources of Doubt
And of those issues that have troubled you in the past, how much do they CURRENTLY still cause you to doubt your religious beliefs?
Responses to Doubt
Thinking back on the instances when you DEEPLY questioned aspects of your religion or were troubled by certain beliefs or practices, how likely were you to do the following:
- Read your Holy Book or other religious materials
- Talk with friends or relatives who belong to YOUR religion
- Pray for enlightenment and guidance
- Talk with a religious authority (such as a priest, minister, imam or rabbi)
- Turn to websites or modern books authored by those of the SAME faith as you
- Seek out people from OTHER religions to see if what they believed made more sense
- Decide to seek the truth, even if it meant leaving your religion
- Purposefully turn to sources that went against your religious beliefs
- Talk with friends who had no religious beliefs about why they did not believe
The Correlates of Doubt
Methodology
Results
Conclusion
Appendix A – Sampling Methodology
Appendix B – Key Variable Measures
- Male
- Female
- 18-29
- 30-39
- 40-54
- 55+
- Less than high school degree
- High school graduate (diploma or equivalent, including GED)
- Some college but no degree
- Associate's degree (2-year)
- Bachelor's degree (4-year)
- Post-graduate degree (Master's, PhD, MD, JD, etc.)
- White
- Black/African-American
- Hispanic/Latino
- American Indian or Alaska Native
- Asian
- Middle Eastern/North African/Arab
- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
- Other (please specify)
- Non-convert
- Convert
- Almost never
- A few times a year
- Once or twice a month
- Once a week
- More than once a week
- Almost never
- Only during Eid
- Once or twice a month
- Once or twice a week
- Daily
- The Quran is the actual word of God and should be taken literally, word for word
- The Quran is the actual word of God, but has some content that is merely symbolic
- The Quran is an ancient book of history and moral guidance authored by men
- Not at all important
- Not too important
- Somewhat important
- Very important
- My life experiences have led me to rethink my religious convictions
- For me, doubting is an important part of what it means to be religious
- Questions are far more central to my religious experience than are answers
- As I grow and change, I expect my religious beliefs will similarly shift
- There are many religious issues on which my views are still changing
- Emphasize attending religious services
- Encourage you to read scripture and other religious material
- Teach you to fear God's punishment if you sin
- Discuss moral "dos" and "don'ts" in religious terms
- Observe religious holidays
- Teach you that your religion's rules are not to be questioned
- There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are for the truth and those who are against it.
- To compromise with our political opponents is dangerous because it usually leads to the betrayal of our own side.
- A group that tolerates too many differences of opinion among its own members cannot exist for long.
- Regular formal lessons outside of normal school hours (e.g., "Sunday school")
- Occasional informal lessons (e.g., Bible/Torah/Quran study)
- Regular formal lessons as a student in a private religious school
- Homosexual relations
- Taking out a loan that requires the payment of interest
- Celebrating the holidays of other faith groups
- Marrying someone of another faith
- Women going out in public with their hair uncovered
- Women leading a gathering of both men and women in communal prayer (salah)
- An abortion when the mother's health is NOT at risk
Appendix C – Additional Models
Notes
1 Youssef Chouhoud, “Modern Pathways to Doubt in Islam” (Dallas, TX: Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, 2016). https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/youssef-chouhoud/modern-pathways-to-doubt-in-islam/
2 Bob Altemeyer and Bruce Hunsberger, Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith and Others Abandon Religion (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1997).
3 The items were adapted from Altemeyer and Hunsberger.
4 For elaboration on these two approaches to religious doubt, see Bruce Hunsberger, Michael Pratt, and S. Mark Pancer, “A Longitudinal Study of Religious Doubts in High School and beyond: Relationships, Stability, and Searching for Answers,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41, no. 2 (2002): 255–66.
6 Pew’s breakdown of their 2015 Religious Landscape Study by race/ethnicity evidences a number of areas where White respondents are less likely to report adhering to fundamental religious practices or believe in core religious tenets than their Black, Latino, and Asian counterparts. See http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/racial-and-ethnic-composition/