Anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe: A multilevel analysis of survey data from 30 countries
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
References (97)
- et al.
When the rubber meets the road: effects of urban and regional residence on principle and implementation measures of racial tolerance
Social Science Research
(2005) - et al.
Social factors influencing immigration attitudes: an analysis of data from the General Social Survey
Social Science Journal
(2001) - et al.
Explaining ethnic polarization over attitudes towards minority rights in Eastern Europe: a multilevel analysis
Social Science Research
(2002) - et al.
Inter-ethnic preferences and ethnic hierarchies in the former Soviet Union
International Journal of Intercultural Relations
(1998) Prejudice, tolerance and attitudes toward ethnic groups
Social Science Research
(1977)Social structural position and prejudice: an exploration of cross-national differences in regression slopes
Social Science Research
(2004)- et al.
Population size, perceived threat, and exclusion: a multiple-indicators analysis of attitudes toward foreigners in Germany
Social Science Research
(2004) - et al.
The Authoritarian Personality
(1950) - Allen, C., Nielsen, J.S. 2002. Summary report on Islamophobia in the E.U. after 11 September 2001. Vienna: European...
Muslims in Italy
The Nature of Prejudice
Personal religious orientation and prejudice
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, quest, and prejudice
The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion
World Christian Encyclopedia
Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Culture Difference
The religious experience: A social psychological perspective
Religion and the Individual: A Social-psychological Perspective
Reciprocity of inter-ethnic attitudes in a multicultural society
International Journal of Intercultural Relations
Race prejudice as a sense of group position
Pacific Sociological Review
Prejudice as group position: microfoundations of a sociological approach to racism and race relations
Journal of Social Issues
Perceptions of racial group competition: extending Blumer’s theory of group position to a multiracial social context
American Sociological Review
Attitudes on residential integration: perceived status differences, mere in-group preference, or racial prejudice?
Social Forces
Theory of ethnic antagonism—split labor market
American Sociological Review
Advanced capitalism and black-white race-relations in united-states—split labor-market interpretation
American Sociological Review
A split labor-market analysis of discrimination against Chinese immigrants, 1850–1882
American Sociological Review
Race-relations in the 1980S—the case of the United-States
Journal of Black Studies
Conceptualizing racism and Islamophobia
Group Processes: Dynamics Within and Between Groups
Hierarchical Linear Models
Conservative protestantism and tolerance toward homosexuals: an examination of potential mechanisms
Sociological Inquiry
Ethnocentric and other altruistic motives
Nice to know you? Testing contact, cultural, and group threat theories of anti-black and anti-hispanic stereotypes
Social Science Quarterly
Reducing contemporary prejudice: combating explicit and implicit bias at the individual and intergroup level
The Social Psychology of Prejudice
Group identification and intergroup attitudes: a longitudinal analysis in South Africa
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Representations of Islam in the politics of mosque development in Sydney
Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie
Traditions in social–psychological analysis of race-relations
American Behavioral Scientist
The roots of public attitudes toward state accommodation of European Muslims’ religious practices before and after September 11
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Ethnic segregation in Cologne, Germany, 1984–94
Urban Studies
The power approach to intergroup hostility
Journal of Conflict Resolution
Intergroup biases in multiple group systems: the perception of Ethnic Hierarchies
’Islamophobia’ reconsidered
Ethnic and Racial Studies
The European Values Study: A Third Wave. Source book of the 1999/2000 European Values Study Survey
Education and ethnic prejudice in Europe: explanations for cross-national variances in the educational effect on ethnic prejudice
Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research
Cited by (437)
Endorsement of wage discrimination against immigrants: Results from a multifactorial survey experiment in Israeli society
2024, Research in Social Stratification and MobilityReligiosity and attitudes toward muslim immigrants in the context of a terrorist attack
2023, International Journal of Intercultural RelationsThe press and government, influencers of citizens’ political opinions: A quasi-experiment on Brexit
2023, Journal of Policy Modeling