Interesting findings were revealed in a recent study on behaviour and attitudes of people during Ramadan. According to the study, the number of Muslim Arabs observing Ramadan this year is down by 2% (it was 98% in 2009) and 87% of Muslims prefer to celebrate Iftar with their families at home.
Besides this, the survey results revealed that 56% of Muslims respond to the call to prayer for timings, 9% rely on their Mosque for timings and the rest rely on the television, newspapers, internet and radio.
In addition, 62% of respondents favoured moon-sighting, while 49% approved of declaration of scholars when asked about methods used to determine the start of the month of Ramadan.
75% of respondents said they were keen on getting Islam related updates and contents on their mobile phones during Ramadan. Prayer timings, the Holy Qur’an and Duas were the preferred content choices.
The respondents of the survey were 1,446 adult Muslims from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 68% were male, 41% were between the ages of 36 and 45 and 30% were between the ages of 18 and 25.
