A Pew Research poll released Wednesday finds multiple countries around the world believe freedom of religious expression is more important than U.S. residents do.
In the poll, 84 percent of Americans say “it is very important that people can practice their religion freely in our country,” which is equal with Pakistan and lower than several sub-Saharan countries, including Burkina Faso 89, Ghana 87, Nigeria 90, Senegal 90, and Uganda 86. Brazil and Lebanon also beat the U.S. with 86 percent.
“The right to worship freely is most popular in sub-Saharan Africa,” Pew writes. “Across all regions, people who say religion is very important in their lives are more likely to value religious freedom.”
Worldwide, a median of 74 percent of people say it is very important for people to be able to practice their religion freely. Only 24 percent of Japanese agree, the lowest of any country polled.
As a whole, the world does not favor allowing people to make statements that are religiously offensive.
“While a global median of 80% believe people should be allowed to freely criticize government policies, only 35% think they should be allowed to make public statements that are offensive to minority groups, or that are religiously offensive,” the report says.
The poll also looks at how countries view Internet freedom, freedom of the press, gender equality and honest elections. Overall, the U.S. leads the world in support of free expression.
This poll comes after a Pew poll from earlier this month saying Americans are becoming less religious. The poll found the percentage of Americans who believe in God has dropped from 92 percent to 89 percent since 2007.
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