US report: 80% of Moroccans regularly pray

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The American research center Pew Research Center has just published a report on religious practices in general, and the frequency of prayers, in particular. It should be pointed out that this study does not only concern monotheistic religions, but encompasses all religions whose prayer is part of dogmas.

This publication of the American Research Center, on the occasion of the National Day of Prayer in the United States (May 2), places Morocco in second place in the Maghreb and Middle East, with 80% of Moroccans who regularly do their daily prayers.

Algeria, with 88%, is ranked first on the podium. Third place is occupied by Jordan (75%). Egyptians are 72%, Tunisians 67% and Lebanese 52% to practice daily prayer, according to the same source.

Without specifying which religion it is, Pew Research Center also gives figures for several Western countries. Thus, 30% of people in Greece remain faithful to daily prayer, 23% in Spain and 10% in France. Germany and the United Kingdom are tied with 9%, reports the study.

It would be tedious to list all the percentages for other countries from all over the world, cited by the US center for research, including the country of Uncle Sam celebrating the National Day of Prayer. It should be remembered that this study concerned 102 countries and that Muslims are not the first of the list of practitioners to respect daily prayer. With 69%, they are far behind 90% of Jehovah’s Witnesses and 80% of Mormons. Note also that it appears from the publication that men, with 41%, are less active than the fairer sex of which 76% perform their religious duties of daily prayers.

Finally, the Pew Search Center report also focuses on the correlation of prayer frequency across all faiths with the Gross Domestic Product of the 102 countries covered by this study. It turns out that the higher the level of GDP, the lower the number of practitioners in this codified act of prayer. This means that it is the poorest countries in the world that count the most believers daily respecting the prayers proper to their religious worship.

All this is fine, except that the US research center failed to mention the techniques and methods that defined the sampling of the targeted populations that were used to produce the above-mentioned statistics. This finding makes many Internet users and many observers doubtful about the reliability of these figures. Survey? Field investigations? Other techniques and statistical means? The report does not say a word and skeptics even say that in a country where Islam is a state religion, few are the people who would say openly that they are non-practicing Muslims, even atheists. And then, has Pew Research Center really targeted people who pray regularly? Those who do it in mosques, churches, synagogues, temples and/or those who pray at home?

On the other hand, it is notorious that in Muslim countries, the number of practitioners of the codified act of praying changes according to certain religious circumstances. Thus, there is a record affluence on Fridays where mosques, despite their impressive number, for example in Morocco, are so small that the public highway is invested by the faithful, while many are those who are almost empty. other days that God does, especially concerning the morning prayer (Al-Sobh). As for mosque attendance during the holy month of Ramadan, and especially during the so-called “tarawih” prayers, it breaks absolute records. But, as if by magic, during the other eleven months of the year, this affluence narrows as the worst of times!