TURKEY: 55% of Muslim supporters of Erdoğan’s party back sharia-based legal system
Turkish Minute (05.02.2025) – A recent Pew Research Center report found that 55 percent of Muslim supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) favor making sharia the official law for Muslims, while only 32 percent of all Turkish Muslims support the idea, with 65 percent opposing it.
Sharia, or Islamic law, provides moral and legal guidance for Muslims on issues such as marriage, inheritance, contracts, and criminal justice, with interpretations varying among scholars and jurists.
The survey, which analyzed religious nationalism across 36 countries, highlights a sharp divide in Turkey over the role of Islamic law in governance. Only 20 percent of Muslims who do not support the AKP favor a sharia-based legal system.
Turkey, a constitutionally secular state with a predominantly Muslim population, stands out among Muslim-majority countries where support for Islamic law is often much higher. The survey found that in countries like Bangladesh (89 percent), Indonesia (89 percent) and Malaysia (93 percent), majorities favor sharia as the official law for Muslims.
In contrast, Turkey’s support for sharia remains low, particularly among younger and highly educated respondents. While 40 percent of Turkish Muslims with lower education levels favor a legal system based on Islamic law, only 22 percent of those with higher education agree.
The report also found a correlation between religiosity and support for sharia. In countries where a higher percentage of Muslims pray daily, support for Islamic law is significantly stronger. In Malaysia 90 percent of Muslims pray daily, and 93 percent support making sharia the official law. In Turkey, where daily prayer rates are lower, support for sharia is also weaker.
The age factor also plays a role in Turkey, as older Muslims (50 and above) are more likely than younger Muslims (18-34) to favor making sharia the official law.
Despite the divide on sharia, a majority (67 percent) of Turks believe that Turkey can be both a Muslim state and a democracy. This figure is consistent with responses from Indonesia (70 percent), Malaysia (80 percent) and Tunisia (82 percent), where majorities also believe religious governance and democracy can coexist.
The findings reflect ongoing tensions over the role of Islam in Turkish law and governance, an issue that has been central to political debates under President Erdoğan’s leadership and align with broader trends in Turkey, where religion remains influential, yet support for sharia-based governance remains limited.
While President Erdoğan has previously condemned opposition to sharia as hostility toward Islam, survey data indicates that a majority of Turks oppose making Islamic law the official legal system. The results of a study by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) also indicate that the Turkish population continues to favor secularism and democracy despite ongoing political rhetoric emphasizing religious identity.
The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan “fact tank,” conducts public opinion polling and data-driven research on global trends, including politics, religion and social issues.
The center’s latest study on religious nationalism surveyed 41,503 adults across 36 countries from January to May 2024, using phone and face-to-face interviews.
The study defines religious nationalism by examining how important people believe their country’s historically dominant religion is to national identity and governance.
The research was conducted as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious changes and their impact on societies worldwide.
While the report provides comparative data, Pew Research Center does not take policy positions, maintaining its role as an independent research organization.
The full Pew Research Center report provides further comparisons on religious nationalism and governance trends across multiple Muslim-majority and high-income nations.
Photo: Erdoğan addressing the 79th UN General Assembly. Source: The Republic of Türkiye Directorate of Communications.