This study investigates public resistance towards Muslims’ civil liberties, such as the wearing of headscarves, the provision of Islamic education and the building of mosques as well as the official recognition of Islam by creating a Islamic public holiday. Explanations were sought in negative perceptions and attitudes towards Muslims and individual value orientations. The main findings, based ...

The Nigerian Shari’a crisis, with its layered and complicated processes, reveals contending perspectives, thoughts, and debates on governance and politics in contemporary Nigerian society. Significantly, this complex process is contested among Northern Nigerian Muslims themselves —not to mention the fierce contestations between Northern Nigerian Muslims and Northern non-Muslims, confrontations ...

Despite the perceived importance of media in the spread of and resistance against Islamist extremism, little is known about how Muslims use different kinds of media to get information about religious issues, and what sources they trust when doing so. This paper reports the results of a large, random sample survey among Muslims in seven countries Southeast Asia, West Africa and Western Europe, w...

Using a random sample of 383 Muslims and Christians in Lebanon and Syria, we explored the degree of public support for two distinct kinds of asymmetric violence—“fundamentalist violence” and “resistance violence”—against the United States as a function of three explanatory narratives: a clash of cultures narrative, social identity/self-categorization theory, and a counterdominance perspective. ...

We present a novel study on the role of gender in perceptions of and emotions about in-group social image among American Muslims. Two hundred and five (147 females, 58 males) American Muslims completed a questionnaire on how Muslims feel in U.S. society. The study measured both stereotypical (i.e., 'frightening,' 'oppressed') as well as non-stereotypical in-group social images (i.e., 'powerful,...

Muslims in France: Identifying a Discriminatory Equilibrium We analyze the assimilation patterns of Muslim immigrants in Western countries with a unique identification strategy. Survey and experimental data collected in France in 2009 reveal that Muslims and rooted French are locked in a sub-optimal equilibrium whereby (i) rooted French exhibit taste-based discrimination against those they are ...

Are Muslim Immigrants Different in Terms of Cultural Integration? Using the UK Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, we explore the determinants of religious identity for Muslims and non-Muslims. We find that Muslims integrate less and more slowly than non-Muslims. A Muslim born in the UK and having spent there more than 50 years shows a comparable level of probability of having a strong...

Few studies have empirically examined how media stereotypes of Muslims influence Americans’ support for public policies exclusively harming Muslims. Across three studies, we tested the short-term and long-term effects of news portraying Muslims as terrorists on Americans’ support for public policies harming Muslims domestically and internationally. Study 1 revealed that exposure to news portray...

BACKGROUND Significant disparities in the incidence of polio existed during its eradication campaign in India. In 2006, Muslims, who comprise 16% of the population in affected states, comprised 70% of paralytic polio cases. This disparity was initially blamed on the Muslims and a rumor that the vaccination program was a plot to sterilize their children. Using the framework of structural violenc...

We investigate Americans’ stereotypes of both Muslims and Muslim-Americans. We find that negative stereotypes relating to violence and trustworthiness are commonplace and that little distinguishes Muslims from Muslim-Americans in the public’s mind. Furthermore, these stereotypes have consequences: those with less favorable views of Muslims are more likely to support several aspects of the War o...