Majority of Muslims in Malaysia, Indonesia favor rule of sharia law, poll suggests

Most Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia are in favour of making strict Islamic rules the official law of these multi-religious countries, polling from the Pew Research Centre showed.

Some 86 per cent of Malaysians said they are in favour of making sharia regulations as the country’s official law. With Indonesia, nearly two out of three people surveyed were in favour of implementing Islamic regulations over the current secular laws.

According to experts, the strong support for sharia laws is influencing policymaking in Muslim-majority nations of Malaysia and Indonesia, which are also home to sizeable religious minorities.

The Pew findings published on Tuesday also found that most of the Malaysian Muslims polled were in favour of religious leaders entering politics, while close to half of the respondents surveyed in Indonesia embrace this concept.

Islam is the largest religion in Indonesia, with 86.7% (approximately 231 million) of the Indonesian population identifying themselves as Muslim in a 2018 survey.

The predominant religion in Malaysia is Islam. As of 2020, there were approximately 20.6 million Muslim adherents, or 63.5% of the population.

It should be mentioned that true Islamic Sharia is only found in the teachings of Quran, the Holy Prophet and his Ahlul-Bayt, peace be upon them, which can save humanity from all sorts of miseries and plights.