Muslims in theUShave views on religion that are different, in many ways, from the views of Muslims in other nations, according to a new global survey of Muslims.

Here are some of the contrasts contained in a poll released this week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:
• Some 48 per cent of Muslims inAmericasay most or all of their close friends are Muslim, compared with a 95 pc global median level, among 39 nations encompassed by the Pew Forum’s survey.

• Nearly two-thirds of US Muslims, 63pc, say there is no inherent tension between being devout and living in a modern society. A nearly identical proportion of American Christians, 64pc, feel that way. But fewer Muslims around the world share that view (the median in the Pew survey was 54pc) - even though theUSis more “modern” in many ways than other nations in the survey, which span fromNigeriatoIndonesia.

• 56pc of US Muslims agree with the view that many religions can lead to heaven. That’s closer to theUSaverage of 70pc than it is to Islam globally, which had an 18pc median in the Pew survey.

• On the question of whether attacks on civilians such as suicide bombings are ever justified in defence of Islam, Muslims inAmericaare strongly on the less-violent end of the global spectrum. In theUS, 81pc of Muslims say such violence is never justified, a slightly higher share than the survey’s global median of 72pc.

About 1pc of US Muslims say violence is “often” justified, versus 3pc globally. Although there is general disapproval of violence, a few nations such asAfghanistanandEgypthave much larger-than-average numbers - 39pc and 29pc, respectively - who view attacks against civilians as often or sometimes justified.

“There's something about US Muslims that is distinctive,” says James Bell, who helped direct the global polling effort that took five years and 38,000 interviews to complete.

That’s the case even though most Muslims in theUSwere born in other nations, the Pew researchers say.
“In their attitudes toward modern society and their relations with people of other faiths, US Muslims sometimes more closely resemble other Americans than they do Muslims around the world,” the new report says.

The report on Muslim attitudes around the world comes as America is grappling with a tragic bombing attack at the Boston Marathon.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers suspected of setting the blasts, was quoted in 2010 as saying, “I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them.” In captions to a photo essay about him as an aspiring boxer, he also worried out loud that "there are no values anymore" and that "people can't control themselves.”

Since the April 15 bomb attack, many Muslim Americans have spoken out to condemn the bombings, and many have also felt frustrated that such events can erase hard-won public trust.