The Relevance of the Centrality and Content of Religiosity for Explaining Islamophobia in Switzerland

Abstract

Research on Islamophobia in Switzerland, and on the role of religiosity in relation to Islamophobia, is in its infancy. Against this background, we analyzed data from an online survey conducted in Switzerland on “Xenosophia and Xenophobia in and between Abrahamic religions”. The results of a multivariate analysis revealed that, besides right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and political orientation, indicators related to religion play a crucial role. We found that the greater the role of religion, and the more central it is for the individual, the more likely it is that the individual has a positive view of Islam. We claim that a person’s level of religiosity is accompanied by her adoption of religious values, such as neighbourliness and tolerance, and that the more religious individuals are, the more likely they are occupied with different religions, which leads to tolerance as long as it is not accompanied by a fundamentalist religious orientation. Also relevant is that the preference for the state to have a secularized relationship with religion is accompanied by a fear of Islam. We propose that studies on Islamophobia, as well as on other prejudices, should use differentiated measures for religiosity; the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) turned out to be a reliable instrument of measurement in this regard.

Does religion predict coronavirus conspiracy beliefs? Centrality of religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs

“…Importantly, similar effects have not been consistently observed for more general measures of religiousness, including the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, which describes the subjective importance of religious meanings within one's personality structure ( Huber & Huber, 2012 ). For example, Yendell and Huber (2020) found that non-Muslim Swiss adults who scored higher on religion's centrality, unlike religious fundamentalists, had more positive attitudes toward Islam. Furthermore, a recent investigation showed that while high levels of religiosity are inconsistent with high valuation of science in some cultures, religiosity and science might be entirely compatible in other countries, such as Iran ( Payir et al, 2021 ).…”

Negative views of Islam in Switzerland with special regard to religiosity as an explanatory factor

“…One important finding is that, of the many factors, religiosity contributes more to explaining variance than, say, social trust, political position and national identity. We therefore suggest that future studies examining the relationship between religiosity and prejudice use a multi-dimensional model such as the CRS (see also Yendell Huber 2020).…”

Differences in journalism culture or is there more to it? Comparing news on the European refugee issue in Western Europe and China

“…Lundby et al (2017) analyzed relationships between religiosity and political attitudes in Scandinavia and found that most Scandinavians associate 'religion' with conflict and half of the population perceives Islam as a threat to their national culture. Research demonstrates that there are manifestations of Islamophobia in France and the UK (Najib and Hopkins, 2020), Belgium (Mescoli, 2019), Sweden (Bevelander and Otterbeck, 2012), and Switzerland (Yendell and Huber, 2020). Hence, based on the epistemology of journalism culture, we ask: RQ3: How is religion in any way related to the news coverage of the European refugee issue in Europe and China?…”