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What did the 2017 Pew Research Center survey find about Muslim Americans and Sharia law?
Executive Summary
The 2017 Pew Research Center national survey of U.S. Muslims did not report a clear, singular finding that "Muslim Americans support Sharia law"; instead, Pew’s U.S. analysis emphasized pride in U.S. identity, concerns about discrimination, and attitudes toward extremism and social issues, while separate Pew global surveys showed wide variation in support for making Sharia the law of the land across majority-Muslim countries [1] [2] [3] [4]. Multiple secondary analyses and commentators note that the Pew U.S. report contains little or no direct tabulation of U.S. Muslims’ aggregate support for implementing Sharia as national law, so claims that the 2017 Pew U.S. survey found broad support for Sharia among Muslim Americans are not supported by Pew’s published U.S. results [2] [5].
1. Why the “Sharia” claim circulates — a confusion between global and U.S. findings
A common source of error is conflating Pew’s global comparisons with Pew’s U.S.-focused report. Pew’s 2017 global polling documented that majorities in some Muslim-majority countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan—favored making Sharia the official law, while relatively few in Turkey, Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan did; that finding is explicitly about those national contexts and not about American Muslims [2]. Commentators and some policy pieces repurposed the global headline to assert U.S. trends, creating the impression that Muslim Americans mirror patterns from countries where Sharia support is high. The Pew U.S. dataset and report prioritized questions about identity, discrimination, political views and social attitudes rather than a direct, singular question on whether Sharia should be the law of the United States, and Pew’s U.S. publications do not present a parallel “make Sharia the law” aggregate statistic for U.S. Muslims [2] [6].
2. What the 2017 Pew U.S. report actually found about Muslim Americans’ attitudes
Pew’s 2017 U.S. findings emphasized that nine in ten U.S. Muslims were proud to be American, 80% were concerned about extremism carried out in the name of Islam, and about half favored reinterpreting traditional understandings of Islam; the report also documented widespread feelings that discrimination against Muslims exists and that many experienced personal incidents of bias [1] [4] [3]. Pew reported that half of U.S. Muslims said their religion had made life more difficult in recent years and that a similar share reported at least one episode of discrimination in 2016. The U.S. survey concentrated on social and political integration, religious practice and views on extremism rather than presenting a direct endorsement measure of Sharia as state law by U.S. respondents [3] [5].
3. How secondary analyses and commentary interpret Pew (and where they diverge)
Policy commentaries and think-tank pieces vary: some cite Pew global numbers to warn about rising support for Sharia in particular countries, while others argue the U.S. Muslim population is largely integrated and skeptical of extremism, citing the U.S.-focused Pew findings [2] [4]. For example, a Cato commentary highlights Pew’s U.S. results about pride and concern over extremism but notes the absence of direct Pew data about U.S. support for Sharia law in that commentary’s cited material [7] [4]. Quartz and ISPU pieces also stress discrimination and integration metrics, underscoring that available U.S. polling does not substantiate a claim that the 2017 Pew U.S. survey found majority support among Muslim Americans for imposing Sharia as national law [5] [8].
4. What the evidence leaves out and why that matters for public debate
Pew’s U.S. report focuses on social integration, political attitudes, and experiences of discrimination; it does not centrally ask a single, nationally representative question framed as “Should Sharia be the law of the United States?” This omission matters because public debate often frames “Sharia support” as a simple yes/no metric, while views about religious law can be nuanced—ranging from personal preference for religious guidance to support for legal enforcement of religious rules [6] [9]. Without a clearly comparable U.S. item, using global Pew findings or other polls to assert a U.S. majority position overstates what the data show and bypasses needed nuance about what people mean when they express support for religious principles in personal or community life [2] [3].
5. Bottom line for journalists, policymakers and readers trying to verify the claim
If the claim is that “the 2017 Pew Research Center survey found Muslim Americans support Sharia law,” that claim is inaccurate as stated: Pew’s 2017 U.S. publications do not present evidence of a U.S. Muslim majority favoring Sharia as national law, and conflating global Pew country results with U.S. findings misrepresents Pew’s U.S. survey content [2] [5]. Responsible reporting should distinguish Pew’s global country-by-country findings [1] from Pew’s U.S. Muslim survey results [1], cite the correct dataset, and clarify what respondents meant by any question about religious law or practice.