Support for Severe Laws
Pakistanis overwhelmingly favor stoning people who commit adultery (83%), and comparable percentages favor punishments like whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery (80%), and the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion (78%). Support for strict punishments is equally widespread among men and women, old and young, and the educated and uneducated.
Even those who say they identify with the modernizers in a struggle between Islamic fundamentalists and those who want to modernize the country support these measures. About nine-in-ten (91%) Pakistanis who side with the modernizers favor stoning adulterers. A similar proportion of those who side with modernizers (89%) favor punishments like whippings and cutting off of hands for theft and robbery, and 86% favor the death penalty for people who leave Islam. These views are virtually identical to the views of those who identify with Islamic fundamentalists.
Pakistanis overwhelmingly favor stoning people who commit adultery (83%), and comparable percentages favor punishments like whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery (80%), and the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion (78%). Support for strict punishments is equally widespread among men and women, old and young, and the educated and uneducated.
Even those who say they identify with the modernizers in a struggle between Islamic fundamentalists and those who want to modernize the country support these measures. About nine-in-ten (91%) Pakistanis who side with the modernizers favor stoning adulterers. A similar proportion of those who side with modernizers (89%) favor punishments like whippings and cutting off of hands for theft and robbery, and 86% favor the death penalty for people who leave Islam. These views are virtually identical to the views of those who identify with Islamic fundamentalists.