Support for secularism declines in Turkey, rises in Pakistan

While Turks who believe that religion and government should remain seperate constituted 73 percent of the population in 2002, five years later the percentage stands at 55 percent.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, support for secularism rose by 15 percent over the same period, to 48 percent.

Pew, an independent research group based in Washington, published the results of its latest Global Attitudes survey on October 5th. The firm interviewed nearly 1000 people in Turkey, and 45,239 people in 47 countries worldwide.Â

A clear majority worldwide supports the seperation of religion and state, according to the survey.Â