Anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe: A multilevel analysis of survey data from 30 countries

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Abstract

There is widespread interest in understanding anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe, but there is little systematic evidence about the extent and patterns of the prejudice. Using data from the 1999–2000 wave of European Values Study this article examines the extent and determinants of anti-Muslim prejudice in both Western and Eastern Europe. We find that prejudice against Muslims was more widespread than prejudice against other immigrants, and that the effects of individual and country-level predictors of prejudice resemble those found in research on anti-minority prejudice in general. Fairly similar results were obtained for both Eastern and Western Europe, but the aggregate levels of prejudice are higher in the East. Our results imply that Muslims in Europe were particularly prone to becoming targets of prejudice, even before the attacks of September 11. The results give some support to group-conflict theory, mainly with regard to the effects of the unemployment. However, the size of Muslim population in a country does not seem to increase the level of anti-Muslim prejudice.

Introduction

Within social science literature a considerable amount of research is related to prejudice. The majority of studies on prejudice has been conducted in the USA, and has mainly focused on anti-black prejudice. In Europe, the number of studies on prejudice has increased considerably since the 1970s, and it is prejudice against immigrants that is main focus of interest. There are good reasons for this increased interest in prejudice and inter-ethnic hostilities in Europe. Since the economic recession in the early 1970s immigration from developing countries has been perceived as a problem and there is concern over the rising xenophobia and increased support for the far right political parties which are emphasising ethnic issues (Pettigrew, 1998).

A significant proportion of immigrants in Western Europe is Muslim. The precise number is unknown and is dependent on the definition of “Muslim”, but recent estimates vary from around 9 million (Fetzer and Soper, 2003) to 15 million (Modood, 2003). Being a part of immigrant population, Muslims meet the same problems as other immigrants. However, a series of international events in the last couple of decades has increased the saliency of the Muslim religion as a marker of minority-group identity. The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 is the most prominent of these events, but also the previous events like the Iranian Revolution and the Rushdi affair—have been prominent subjects in the public discourse shaping attitudes toward Muslims. It is therefore relevant to explore whether Muslims are particularly exposed to prejudice and if the patterns of anti-Muslim prejudice follow similar patterns of prejudice against minorities in general, or if there are some notable differences.

Although there is large literature addressing the situation and problems of Muslim populations in Western countries, very few systematic empirical studies of prejudice and discrimination exist. The most probable reason for this is lack of micro-level data. Therefore, as Fetzer and Soper (2003) declared: “…[a] methodologically sophisticated, cross-national analysis of mass-level attitudes toward Muslims is virtually nonexistent.” (p. 248). In this article, we attempt to reduce this gap in existing knowledge by using the data from the 1999–2000 wave of “European Values Study” to shed more light on the levels and the patterns of anti-Muslim prejudice in both Western and Eastern Europe.

It is important to note that our study is based on data preceding the September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA, the murder of Theo Van Gogh in Amsterdam, the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London, controversies about the Prophet Mohammed cartoons in Denmark and the Pope’s speech in Germany. If we assume that levels and patterns of anti-Muslim prejudice are in a period of rapid change in recent years (our best guess would be increase in prejudice), then the results of this study are highly time-specific. They show the situation as it was at the turn of the millennium, and probably differ from the results one would obtain by analysing either older or more recent data.

We are concerned with two main questions: (1) Is the aggregate level of prejudice against Muslims higher than the level of prejudice against other non-Western immigrants; and (2) Does the pattern of anti-Muslim sentiment follow the pattern usually found in analyses of prejudice against minority groups, or are there significant differences? By differences in patterns of prejudice we mean differences in effects of individual and country-level predictors of anti-Muslim prejudice compared to the corresponding effects usually found in studies of anti-minority prejudice. We employ a t-test in the study of differences in aggregate country-level prejudice in an attempt to answer the first question. Regarding the second question we employ a series of multilevel logistic regressions.

Section snippets

Previous research and theories of prejudice

There is no generally accepted definition of prejudice, but the single most known definition is probably Allport’s (1979, p. 9) definition of ethnic prejudice as “an antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization”. Prejudice has usually been conceptualized as an attitude, consisting of negative feelings, beliefs and behavioural intentions toward other social groups (e.g. Dovidio et al., 2000, Jackman, 1977, Simpson and Yinger, 1985). Although this notion of prejudice as negative,

Data

Our main data source is the 1999–2000 wave of European Values Study (Halman, 2001).7 The original data set includes around 41,000 individuals from 32 countries. Due to missing values on our main dependent

Country-level independent variables

Percentage of Muslims is the country-level variable indicating the percentage of Muslims in the population. The variable is coded on the basis of data from Religious Freedom Reports issued by the U.S. Department of State (2001). The material in Religious Freedom Reports is abundant, but its form is narrative and the demographic data are not presented in any systematic form. Out of this narrative text we have extracted the data about the proportion of the population that is Muslim.

Results

We start our analysis by examining whether the aggregate level of anti-Muslim prejudice is higher than the level of anti-immigrant prejudice. The percentage not willing to have Muslims and the percentage not willing to have immigrants as neighbours, together with the difference between these two percentages are presented in Table 1. The percentage not willing to have Muslims as neighbours seem to be higher both in Western and Eastern Europe. Paired sample t-tests reveal differences to be

Discussion and conclusions

In this study we have examined both the aggregate level and patterns of anti-Muslim prejudice, patterns being represented by individual and country-level predictors of prejudice. Perhaps the most important finding is that aggregate level of anti-Muslim prejudice was significantly higher than the corresponding level of anti-immigrant prejudice in both Western and Eastern Europe. To our knowledge, this is first statistically significant evidence about heightened level of anti-Muslim prejudice in

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