Religious Persecution in Cross-National Context: Clashing Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies?

Grim, Brian J.; Finke, Roger

doi:10.1177/000312240707200407

Cited by 214 publications

(136 citation statements)

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“…We support the predictions of our theory, which contradicts and expands existing arguments in the literature on immigration (Fetzer & Soper, 2005;Helbling, 2014;Koopmans, 2013), studies on religious discrimination (Fox & Akbaba, 2013, 2014, and the economics of religion (Grim & Finke, 2007, by combining two data sources in the controlled setting of a subnational comparison. First, we draw on newly designed survey items that capture citizens' attitudes toward Muslim immigrants, the wearing of headscarves, and the building of minarets that were for the first time included in the 2011 wave of the Swiss Electoral Studies (SELECTS; Lutz, 2012).…”

Section: Why Do So Many Citizens In European Democracies Fear Muslim supporting

confidence: 70%

How State Support of Religion Shapes Attitudes Toward Muslim Immigrants

Helbling

Traunmüller

2015

Comparative Political Studies

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This article argues that governments play a considerable role in shaping citizens’ attitudes toward Muslim immigrants through the way they regulate religion. European democracies are far from secular, and matters of religious regulation cannot be reduced to abstract values or constitutional clauses. Under conditions of high state support of religion, accommodating new religious minorities involves not only the changing of existing rules but also giving up on long-standing traditions and everyday habits. As a result, citizens see religious newcomers as a threat to their way of life and react with animosity to their practices and demands. We support our argument by combining newly designed survey items with original data on religious regulation in 26 Swiss cantons. Our findings contradict the extant literature and have important implications for the democratic challenges in Europe, the quality of modern immigration societies, and the role of religion in democracy more generally.

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Section: Why Do So Many Citizens In European Democracies Fear Muslim supporting

confidence: 70%

How State Support of Religion Shapes Attitudes Toward Muslim Immigrants

Helbling

Traunmüller

2015

Comparative Political Studies

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“…Using cross-national data from the World Values Survey, Elliott and Hayward (2009;Hayward and Elliott 2014) argue that government regulation of individual liberties such as free speech or the right to organize new political parties reduces the positive effect of religious participation on life satisfaction, making it negative when levels of regulation are high. The restriction of religious liberties disproportionately, though not exclusively, affects religious minority groups (Grim and Finke 2007).…”

Section: Religion and Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minority Participation and Well-Being in Majority Catholic Nations: What Does it Mean to be a Religious Minority?

May

Smilde

2015

J Relig Health

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This paper examines the effect of religious majority size on religious minority well-being. Religious minorities face a number of challenges ranging from deliberate discrimination to inadequate worship space and accommodations. Yet for many of the members of religious minority groups, religion remains an important part of community organizing and individual well-being. Given this paradox, it is important to consider the ways that minority status is experienced in different contexts and by different groups. Using data on non-Catholics in majority Catholic nations, this paper demonstrates that the personal benefits of participation in a minority religion are dependent on the size of the Catholic majority. Although religious minorities generally experience health and wellness gains via their engagement with religious communities, the non-Catholic residents of some Catholic nations score higher on self-reports of mental and physical health when they are not actively engaged with their religious tradition. Explanations for this conditional relationship are considered in the discussion of the results.

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“…Perhaps the most pressing answer concerns the debate over secularization. The sociology of religion has featured a longstanding debate between theorists of secularization (Bruce, 2002;Dobbelaere, 2000;Martin, [1978] 1993; Swatos & Christiano, 1999) and proponents of the supply-side or religious markets model (Grim & Finke, 2007;Stark & Iannaccone, 1994), though there is a growing consensus that religious change is highly context-specific (Greeley, 2002;Hout & Greeley, 1987;Smith, 2008). One variant of secularization theory (Bruce, 2002) predicts a decline in the power of religious belief and practice.…”

Section: The Place Of Demography In Theories Of Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%